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Elections...of some sort in South Korea

The past week has been full of people strangely dressed with matching colors, numbers, pamphlets and cards. Not to mention the trucks that go buy blaring advertisements for the candidates (during school hours next to our school) or building sized posters that get hung up (which makes me wonder how much they pay the businesses to go without natural light for days on end). I know that there is a big mayoral race going on in Seoul right now so I figured it's the same for the Busan/Yangsan area. I'm not entirely sure about the particulars though. I tried googling it but mainly Busan elections seem to merit a byline in articles about the Seoul elections.

Anyways, Thursday after work (and the start of a glorious three-day weekend, thank you Buddha's birthday!) I headed into town to get my soy latte fix at Coffee Jigi. After an hour or so of studying Korean and caffeinating myself, I walked down the street to meet people for dinner and this is the sight that greeted me:

You'd think that the road would be closed off for something like this--especially since it would be easy to reroute traffic in my neighborhood but oh no. There were trucks and lined up volunteers on both sides of the road. Can you tell that the women behind the men are doing more than clapping. There was a dance. I tried to film it but traffic is not conducive to home video production. I was also the only one running around taking photos of the volunteers lining the streets. Some of the volunteers looked confused, others amused, and I'm pretty sure I got a couple of eye rolls. The things I do for blog documentation!

Originally the 7 girls were just wearing their own mismatched flower visors but an organizer came over, distributed hats and took them away. I want a number hat!

Look! Police directing traffic and helping people cross the street!!!!!!!! I honestly wonder if anyone got hit recently during a rally that inspired this. It was nice though to relax about careening motor bikes, buses and cars all trying to run me down.**

Lots more to blog about the weekend with more pictures. Some of them even include my lovely mug! I think I"ll probably spread it out over the next couple of days since I promised my mother I'd finish rewriting her website already...

**My mother claims I am the most morbid person she has ever met. Considering the fact that I've posted a will on my blog twice I think she might have a point. However, I'm sure we could find someone more morbid than I am. Maybe. With much Google searching.

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http://aaaalexsadventuresinasia.blogspot.com/

南京 Nanjing

1 Jan 2010, I have a whole day to wander the streets on 南京 Nanjing. I visit 阅江楼景区 Yuejiang Tower, the ancient city walls, and the Presidential Palace for a little history lesson.

SNL is BACK on TRACK and SO am I

Today was a very good day. The Celtics took game three in Boston. Tomorrow the Lakers are going to take
game three in LA. IT's going to be an LA-Boston NBA finals again. MMX. History is being lived.

SNL is back on track. I hadn't watched SNL in years. I made my brother tivo it as he did the Boston-Orlando
game. King of the Hill is starting. All my brother and I watch on TV is Sports and Animated Sitcoms, sometimes
sein or the Elaine show or 2&1/2 Men.

SNL was really funny and it was funny cuz during the NEWS bit, Seth Meyers, who I don't really like too much
sounded like Tina Fey, so I figured, she probably wrote his lines. Also, it was evident from his manner that he
was reading another person's writing. I mean, if a man writes his own lines, you can feel it in the impact of verse.

Fey appeared and then reappeared in every skit and that show was just wonderful.

I been working for the census and HEARD that Betty White hosted SNL last week and that she did a really funny
skit about census enumerating. I haven't seen it. It's not easily found on YOUTUBE yet. I don't spend much time
on the interweb, so I may never see it.

Today 5/22/10, my older brother Mike, filling in for Chepe Escondido who was unavailable due to business
regarding one of his daughters, and I and Flibworth Thurstein performed as a trio at a party in Sun City, Riverside
CA and made 150 bucks between us.

Our best sound wasn't our hits, hotel CA, Margueritaville, Have you ever seen the Rain, Me and Julio down by the
Schoolyard, Bad Bad Leroy Brown, Me and Bobby McGee -- NO, our best sound was our improv jams.

Our band is called Highly Caffinated and Chepe owns the drums. I play them sometimes too.

I love Tiny Fey and can't wait to meet her.

wall #4

"you were in my dream. you were showing me this temple that you often visit that was really beautiful and in nature but it had several artificial rock climbing walls that were to be climbed in order. i got really excited and climbed the wrong wall (wall #4) first and it felt really great but a monk told me that i would be cursed unless i climbed every wall starting with wall #1. then you tried to buy bread from the monks but were being really picky. you really wanted rye bread but they didn't have any, then you ended up buying something called "bi bim bim" and it was a type of grain bread. then i woke up."

It's A Lot Of Something Good

안녕하세요.

It's been a while, hasn't it readers? This past bit of time has been really busy. I've been working quite a lot on top of studying for the TOPIK exam which is coming up in September. I haven't exactly had a whole lot of extra time to type up on the blog.

Ugh, my whole being is tired! It's been 'go go go!' pretty much non-stop since the last post. Open House classes at work made things really stressful for everyone, but thanks to the hard work and all of the effort that everyone put forth we believe that it was a success. Working at this private institute is sometimes really daunting, but I tell you what... I'm proud of it. I'm proud of the school, I'm proud of my co-workers, I'm proud to say that I'm a teacher there. While there are some things that I don't agree with (like some methods of teaching and what not), overall the programs are incredible and I enjoy being a part of it. It's certainly not what I want to spend the rest of my life doing, but for now I'm happy where I am.

This weekend was a holiday here in Korea. Buddha's Birthday. I think about it being kind of on par with Martin L King's Birthday back in the states. It's a holiday, no school, some work places are closed... but there's not really any kind of amazing celebration happening. Everyone just gets a day off. Having a three day weekend gave me the perfect opportunity to head up to SEOUL!

SEOUL SURVIVOR

As for the title, it's actually borrowed from some sign that I and the group I was with saw at a sports bar in Itaewon. Kind of clever, I guess.

Anywho. I had trouble getting online tickets for the KTX trip up to Seoul because I don't have my Alien Registration card yet (by the way... where is my card anyway? The 90 day deadline is approaching and I haven't even heard anything about it since my first week in Busan). Getting to a station to buy tickets was a problem because of my hectic work schedule last week. Luckily my good friend Jeongmin came to the rescue!

Jeongmin is the whole reason I was going to Seoul in the first place. You want to hear a touching story? Well, I'll tell you one....

OUR STORY

Jeongmin and I met in the 10th grade of Highschool. That put us both at about 16 years old. She was an exchange student from Seoul, South Korea. How in the WORLD she managed to find herself studying in Hot Springs, Arkansas is beyond me, but it happened and there she was. My school wasn't exactly diverse, with the majority of the student body being white, middle class and she was the first person I'd ever known from a foreign country. We had an Oral Communications class together and also played the same instrument in band (flute). We started chatting and after a while an awesome friendship formed.

I tell everyone, and this is true, that she's the reason I became interested in Asia in the first place. It was so amazing to me ( as I was this ignorant, unwordly, awkward teenager) that someone could come from such a different environment, surrounded by such different things, and still be so similar to me. That year was the year I really started to think about the differences and similarities in people. People everywhere... are people. Despite culture, religion, upbringing, language... we can all connect to each other. How awesome is that?!

The end of our 10th grade year was pretty sad, because Jeongmin had to go back to Seoul. Her year of study abroad was over. We kept in touch. Before we had facebook we e-mailed and occasionally talked on the phone. Even though we were on separate sides of the world and even though YEARS were going by, it always felt like she'd only been gone for a few days.

I started college hell bent on Asian Studies. I learned Japanese (there was no Korean program, unfortunately), studied abroad in Japan, and worked with students from all over the globe at a language center. Seven years later, and who would have EVER guessed this would happen (I mean, really), I end up in Busan, South Korea.

Friday was the first time in 7 years that I'd seen Jeongmin, and it barely felt like it'd been even seven hours!

BACK TO THE SEOUL SURVIVOR THING

Jeongmin, her boyfriend, and her best friend from college all greeted me at Seoul station. We went around all over the place, and while I can't remember the name of the area exactly, it was pretty fantastic. And it was HOT! HOT HOT HOT! I'd dressed in jeans and a heavy quarter sleeve shirt thinking that since I was going further up NORTH that it would be cooler in Seoul than it was in Busan. WRONG! I thought I was going to melt.

We had an awesome time.

We ended up in Itaewon because I'd told Jeongmin that I wanted to go to "WHAT THE BOOK" a mainly 'used' bookstore that offered all English titles. We all browsed some, and I bought two titles by Haruki Murakami. After that we met up with Jeongmin's friends brother (I would use names but I really don't know if they'd be okay with that. So, you're just going to have to put up with the 'friends friends cousins brothers ex girlfriends goldfish' explanations) and browsed around the area until we found a cozy little sports bar to chill at and talk. It was a good time. :)

The whole night was a good time. When you're with a group of friendly, good, people you can't help but have a good time. You feel safe, you feel comfortable, it's all great.

Jeongmin and a new friend I'd made from the evening out ate lunch together the next day and spent some time shopping around Seoul station before it was time for us to part ways. Even though I only spent a little over 24 hours in Seoul, it was a great time and I definitely know I'll be going back.

And to think.... I was actually DREADING Seoul. The only reason I was going in the first place was to see Jeongmin. That's it. But Seoul turned out to be pretty cool. I guess I can admit that.

Anyway,

It's another busy week looking at me from just over the top of Sunday's head. I can't tell whether it's smiling or scowling... I guess I'll find out starting tomorrow. Monthly tests for the students are at hand! That either means that I'll be glowing with pride or afire with irritation at the end of the week after countless hours of speaking/listening/ and writing tests with students who may or may not have studied for them.

That's all for now. The biggest highlight was Seoul... oh, and yeah, I guess I did emotionally survive the open houses. That's something pretty nifty in and of itself.

Until next time,

~Auggie

The innocence of vaccine concerns here.

I follow science and pseudo-science news and am concerned by the increase these days of pseudo-science.

I recently saw an article title, “Inoculation fever for young children rising” and feared that the anti-vaxxer crazies had gotten a foothold in Korea (second link is to an anti-anti-vaxxer website).

No, the Korean article is about where people are choosing to get their children inoculated. It seems people are going to private clinics rather than public health centres. Both places use the same vaccine and the only difference is the price -free at the public location.

Indeed, there are no concerns about the safety of the vaccines themselves (the first link):

A mother of a 21-month-old daughter said, “Over the last six months, I spent more than 300,000 won (252 dollars) on vaccinations,” adding, “I went only to private hospitals since I didn’t have much knowledge of vaccinations.”

One expert says, however, “Vaccinations cause no harm. If the chance of getting a disease is low, however, children don’t necessarily need to be inoculated against the disease.”

The North American vaccines = autism people, by contrast, are all about the dangers of the vaccines (from the second link).

These are some of the ingredients antivaxxers claim are in vaccines:

anti-freeze(ethylene glycol): NO. There is no anti-freeze in vaccines. There is a compound in vaccines, however, with an awfully long name that starts with polyethylene glycol p blahblahblah. This is what confused them. But as the error has been pointed out to them, time and time again, they persist in wilfully misleading the public with the scary ANTI-FREEZE!
aborted fetal tissue: No. Vaccines do not contain aborted fetal tissue. A long, long time ago (the 1960’s) some cell lines were cultured from aborted fetuses. That much is true. What is not true, and once again has been pointed out to the antivax liars, TIME AND TIME AGAIN, is that vaccines do not (in fact, cannot) contain human tissue in any way, shape or form! Ask any blood donor recipient or transplant patient about that.
Thimerosol(mercury): this toxic substance, harmful in any amount, causes autism and a host of other disorders (according to antivaxxers). The truth is, however, a lot more encouraging. Mercury is not in all vaccines, and if present, is in minute traces of the less toxic variety. You get more mercury from a single can of tuna than in all vaccines combined. Relax. And still eat tuna.

UPDATED TWO MINUTES LATER: Tall guy writes has a webcomic describing some of the history of the anti vaccine movement (one page below – total comic is 15 ‘pages’ -one scrollable webpage).

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Seoul Trip

Ah, Seoul and its 23 million people. Gotta love it. The family hopped in the car and took a road trip to this massively crowded city during Spring Break. It was unusually cold for this time of year but it was still a great time.

One of our first stops was Lotte World, the world's largest indoor amusement park. There's also an outdoor portion of the park that has a castle that looks eerily similar to the Disney castle. I was reminded of the McDonald's clone restaurant, McArnold's from the "Coming to America" movie.

Here's a short video from our Lotte World trip. Fear, laughs, mini-Viagra commercial - this video has it all.

Starbucks in Insadong.

Carol loves these paper lamps. She was in hog heaven. Travel tip # 17: While overseas, if you see something you like, get it. You just don't know if you'll ever be back again. Later on, you may simply forget how much you paid for the thing but the value of the memory just increases with time.

Unfortunately, Jake wasn't a huge fan of the lamps or anything else in the many stores. He started acting up and got a little extra attention from Dad. This is Jake's "not happy" look. Parenting tip #37: Kids need to know they will be disciplined outside of the house too.

This is the best waffle guy in all of Korea. You can get a good waffle from any street vendor in Korea but not with the friendliness and charisma of this guy. The boys love this delicious treat. They lather the waffles up with cream and syrup. Makes a big mess but puts a smile on your sticky face.

The first step towards world peace.

We stayed at the Dragon Hill Lodge on the US Army Base. There's a swimming pool, lots of restaurants, kids play area and shops in the lodge. These are the flags right outside of the hotel. You can see Seoul Tower over to the right.

This was taken just a few doors down from our room. Bow-chicka-bow-bow.

So I had this awesome barbeque meal at one of the restaurants at the Dragon Hill Lodge. I highly recommend this meat extravaganza. Who knew it was a precursor for all the great BBQ we'll soon be hitting in Memphis, Tennessee?

We stumbled upon a toy museum in Insadong. These characters are from an old TV show my siblings used to watch everyday after school. It was called, "Battle of the Planets."

I really freaked out when I saw this. The blue and red spaceship on the right is the ship from the "Battle of the Planets." The gray and red ship is the Argo from "Starblazers." Ho hum for the uninitiated. Totally awesome for those that know these two shows.

More cool stuff from the toy museum. The two smallest waists in all of Hollywood history.

How many of these shows do you recognize?

I think I know all of them except for one. That officially makes me an old fart.

Maybe my favorite picture from the whole trip. That's what I call protection. Until next time -- C2.

南京 Nanjing

31 Dec 2009, My train comes into 南京 Nanjing. The weather's much nicer than it was up in Beijing with clear, blue skies. So I wander around a beautiful park and explore the city center.