Thailand

Hi all,

Well, I'll be adding pictures on a separate post, once they upload to my computer (since we took hundreds, it's taking a few hours). We just got back from Thailand, or Tae-Guk as my kids call it. We departed bright and early on Wednesday morning to Incheon airport, and spent the next 6 hours flying over the South China Sea towards Bangkok. We landed in the afternoon, got our tickets for our next flight, and had our first meal of the day in Thailand.

I had my first of many coconut-based drinks while in the airport, literally straight out of the coconut, along with Pad Thai. This will become somewhat of a theme for us on this trip, as you might imagine.

We linked up with Daniel, who was taking a separate flight via Hong Kong, and then the whole lot of us flew out to Koh Samui, on the south-eastern coast near Phuket. I should add at this point that our group included myself, Jen, Daniel, Sumi, Paulina, and Ashley, all members of the teaching team at our Academy. Daniel invited us down to stay at his Aunt's guest in Mae Nam/Bang Phor (pronounced pour).

We got there late at night, and, after meeting Daniel's lovely relative, Linda, and her roommate, Louise, we settled in for the night, and made plans.

The next morning, we went out to Chaweng Beach (Ban Chaweng), on the east coast of the island. It was Jen's first time swimming in the ocean, and my first time in the Pacific on this side of the world. I considered it a life-long goal fulfilled, to have swum in both sides of the two biggest oceans, the Atlantic, and the Pacific. A goofy goal, perhaps, but I was glad to do it.

We ate lunch at a place called Aladdin in Chaweng. Anyone going to Koh Samui is recommended to visit, as well as the Sea View restaurant in Mae Nam, where we ate that evening with Linda and Louise. While I shall spare you any further references to how awesome the food was (since that was not the main point of the trip), suffice it to say that we all thoroughly enjoyed being able to eat such great food on the cheap. A Pad Thai with eggs, ordered from a street vendor (like an American hot dog stand) cost 35 bhat, which equals 1,500 Won, or about 1.75$CAD. We were, in short, in paradise, food wise.

The beaches, meanwhile, were simply amazing. The view was gorgeous at Chaweng, with a view of the Pacific stretching out to the horizon, deep aquamarine seas that went on forever, and palm trees everywhere. We spent most of the first day on the beach, getting a little crisped by the heat. The temperature was about 40-50 degrees each day, so we all felt a little tired at the end of the day, but it was entirely worth it.

The next day, Daniel and I went off to explore the island while Sumi, Paulina, Ashley, and Jen got facials at a nearby spa. Daniel and I checked out Ban Taling, Hat Lamai, a few temples, got lost somewhere in the south-western end of the island for an hour, before driving through Ban Nathon (na-tawn), where the docks are, and back to Mae Nam. We checked out all sorts of stuff, and it was a good chance to chat with my coworker and get to know him better. We've been working together for 8 months, but Daniel is sometimes a private person, so it was nice to talk with him.

Over the next few days, we would check out Lamai beach and Big Buddha Beach (Bo Phut, in the north), a Muay Thai fight or two at Lamai market, and Jennifer and I went clubbing at the Green Mango club in downtown Chaweng. It was a great scene, and we both enjoyed it. Our coworkers gave us a polite push in the general direction of the club, insisting that we spend some time alone with each other. It was a cute gesture on their part, and we appreciated it, since we both love dancing.

We got a Thai massage (or two) on our last couple of days in Thailand, and checked out Chaweng one more time before we left. It's probably the best beach of the bunch, given that it's so central, and has such great water.

We also went on a bit of a tour around the island, checking out a waterfall, a restaurant on the top of one of the mountains on the island--the view was spectacular, and, as I said, I'll have pictures up ASAP--and riding on an elephant.

In short, we really, really, really needed this vacation. We were all of us stressed as the last four months went on, and I for one have had almost zero break time during that period, between working the kindergarten class on Saturdays, the new curriculum, 4 out of 5 classes having essays, and a mess of other changes at work. I like my job, but, don't get me wrong, I was bushed.

Linda and Louise are great people, and I'm grateful to them for their patience and generosity in putting us up in their guest house this week. We were literally in the middle of the jungle, surrounded by dogs, water buffalo, a few snakes and scorpions, flowers, chickens, the endless sun, and the trees. It was, in short, perfect.

While I have to get back to work this week, I'm feeling a lot less stress, and Jen looks like she literally shed a year or two from her face. My kids all think I look more relaxed, which is good--they still have tests, though, despite the flattery!

All in all, well worth it.

------

Movies

I love this week-end: Wolverine, Star Trek, and Angels and Demons are all coming out at the same time. I've seen Star Trek already, last night, and am going to see the other two over the next two days. Movie marathon! I'll post a review on the weekend.

Cheers,

Chris

Seeing Old Friends

Hi All,

Well, a brief-ish post today. I spoke last time about how we were losing some of our old core staff members, like Naomi (Kyong-Hee Hong, is her Korean name). She's a sweetheart, and basically a dear friend of the majority of the English staff who had worked at our Hagwon over the last two plus years.

Well, we decided to ask her to go for dinner tonight, alongside another friend and former co-worker from our school, Dave, whose blog is featured here. Dave's a smart guy, and a lot of fun to hang out with, not least because he shares Jennifer's and my mutual love of Settlers of Catan. Settlers has become the mainstay at our on-again, off-again games night with the folks from work, and it reminds us of home, where we first started to play it.

Dave, Jen, and I went out to our second Bluewings game of the 2009 campaign, against Jeju United. Once more, Suwon lost. I think this is a case of Championship Blues, or the like: Suwon won the K-League title last year, and played recently against David Beckham's LA Galaxy team. They're also in the Asian Football Championship Tournament, so I can understand some sluggishness. Still--losing to Jeju? Gah.

It was nice to relax a bit this weekend. I'm still teaching Kindergarten, but I had a breakthrough with one of my reticent kids. His name is Rick, and while he's cute as all get out, he was a problem child at first: I suspect his English is limited, and he was actively refusing to take part in class. His mother gave him heck, I think, because he came in after two weeks of rolling around on the floor in class and actively took part. 

Well, paid attention, at least, even if he didn't understand. This week, though, I was able to get him to repeat words, and, better yet, to point to material in the books we were reading that was the same. It's moments like that, when my kids have an "Ah-ha!" moment that I feel like I'm doing something of worth.

----

On that subject: I had an odd weekend. I read a coworker's blog, where she discussed having trouble connecting her personal perspective with her work here. I can respect that: there's a lot of strange decisions going on in our school, and at times it's easy to fall back on the "It's just Business" motto. I know all about that: I even fell back into that mentality at times, if only to protect my mental stability from the pressure of trying to get these kids to care.

I nearly broke down this weekend. Seriously, literally, and totally broke down. I was on the verge of giving up and going home, I was literally that angry. Our new curriculum took a month for us to sort out, and I was tired of having to come in early every day to fix things. I was ready to give up.

Jin, one of our Korean team-mates, fixed things, after a lot of work, and I feel better now. But it feels as if I'm struggling to swim upstream, all the while somebody's attaching a rope to my feet from the other direction. 

I'm obssessive compulsive--I need organization, especially in my work space, in order to function. I need it that way so I can keep my brain focused, and thus not go completely nuts when things go wrong. I admit to being a perfectionist, as well, so when things get disorganized, I get mad. 

It was frustrating, to say the least, this last month.

I am glad, though, to have spend an hour or two trekking with Jen around the highlands near Kyung-Hee Dae University, near our school and apartment. The mountains in this country are utterly gorgeous, and incredibly peaceful. One can easily lose hours climbing over the hills around one's own house, and its easy to see why hiking is so popular, here. 

It was a mini-date with my wife, which we needed, I think. We talked about a host of subjects, about life, work, and faith. I maintain my spirituality as a private matter--I don't discuss it with my coworkers, as my perspective would take some serious discussion to describe, not to mention, it comes across as seriously heretical to most Christians. I am what is called a Gnostic Christian, and the closest to my interpretation of my faith is the Universalist and Quaker traditions within the mainstream church. Of course, calling the Universalists "mainstream" sounds funny, but you get the idea.

I hold to the belief that God exists, not as a personal being (i.e., an incarnate "old man in the sky"), but as the fundamental spirt of all that lives, what John Shelby Spong calls "the ground of being." As such, I tend to distrust literalism and strict dogma--perhaps this comes from some innate distrust of authority engendered on me in my youth, but who knows, right? For me, like the Gnostics, God is to be found in the shared experience, those wonderful moments when the universe seems to click, and you have an "ah-ha" moment on some deep, fundamental level about life and the meaning of life itself. I've experienced that only a few times, and it leaves me shaken to my core when it does happen.

But a fundamental part of my faith is the belief that I, being constrained by an inherently subjective perspective (I don't accept the idea that God will tell me everything, and even if God did, I would be biased by said subjectivity), have the right to tell others what they should think. As Albert Camus said, I cannot tell others what is right, but I can rebel when I see something I think is wrong. In short, I don't talk much about my faith because I worry that I might interfere in the path and development of others. So long as their path does not prevent others from pursuing their own truths in turn, I find myself unwilling to interfere. 

Perhaps that is an odd perspective, but it is my own... and it was nice to talk with Jen about it this weekend. We fell in love because we were both thinkers and loved to have good, rational arguments about things. I still love her for that, and I hope that I can, in my small way here, encourage my kids to do as I was taught: to question everything, and try to grow.

Or, perhaps, in seeing my old friends, I am feeling nostalgic.

Peace,

Chris

Japan

(Nijo Castle)

Hi all,

Jennifer and I ventured to Osaka and Kyoto, Japan, for the Korean/Chinese New Year. It was a nice break from routine, and I know Jen needed the time off from work--she's been doing more work than I with Intensives, and was getting tired, understandably. We set off on the morning of Saturday the 24th of January, taking the bus to Incheon International. 

With the snow being so heavy, it took us nearly two and a half hours to get there, when normally it takes an hour to an hour and a half. Thank goodness we left early!

We arrived at Kanzai Airport, about forty-five minutes outside of Osaka, and after a few minutes deciphering the Kanji of the train station schedule, slapped our foreheads when we realized that it was also in English on another board. Easy as cake. We got on the train, snapping pictures as we went of the countryside. 

We arrived in Osaka, dropped our stuff at the hotel, snapped more pictures as we walked towards Osaka castle, our first stop on the "tour" I had mapped out in my head. Well, that's like suggesting we had a plan, here, which we didn't. We decided to do what we had become comfortable with after five months in Korea: to throw ourselves into a foreign culture and just see what we could find.

The results were well worth it--open air markets, temples everywhere, shrines, castles, and incredibly friendly people. The only "planned" portion of the visit were our hotels, trains, and the visit to Kyoto's Imperial Palace, which has to be booked in advance.

Anyway, we got to Osaka Castle, and wandered around the grounds. Built by Toyotomi Hideyoshi at the tail end of what's called the Sengoku Jidai (the age of the country at war) from about 1500-1620 or so (yes, over a hundred years of civil war), it was a massive series of fortifications meant to ensure control over access to Kyoto and Osaka's own shipping.

(Osaka Castle)

The building has been burnt down on several occasions, so the version we saw was a rebuilt one, but entirely worth coming to see. Lots of history on display inside the Castle too, and seeing dozens of sets of samurai armor was probably the best part.

We continued to tour around downtown Osaka, going to Tenjinbashisuji (I think) District, which is a 2.5 km long shopping arcade. We got dinner, which was, of course, overpriced (everything in Japan, food-wise, is expensive due to it being an island), but yummy, and met a very nice restaurant owner who helped us figure out how to get food in very good English.

Wandering around for another hour or two, we finally headed back to our hotel, with tatami mat floors, futons, and a communal bath house for washing. It was an interesting experience, especially being the only foreigner in the latter (I got a few stares). A nice hotel, however (Hotel Taiyo, if you're planning a visit), especially given the owners speak English pretty well.

One thing that is fundamentally different from Korea in the tourist aspect: the English on major sights' signage is damn-near perfect. I found one or two grammar goofs, but only in the subway, or on out of the way spots.

Anyway, the next morning, Jennifer wrote her GRE examination (they don't do that in Korea except twice a year, and she needed to finish it for PhD applications) in Osaka in the morning, while I checked out Shitennoji temple.

 

(Shitennoji Temple)

One of the oldest operational Buddhist temples (possibly the oldest extant one) in Japan, built to honor one of the founders of the Buddhist tradition in the country. One thing that is also neat to note about this place is that, en route, I found about a half-dozen smaller Shinto shrines scattered around Tennoji station. This was to become a bit of a fun footnote to our entire tour: we would walk past about five shops, find a shrine, pass a cemetery, another five to ten shops, then another shrine or temple, and so on. Japan, especially Kyoto, is literally history central, in a good way. There are so many sites to see that it is hard for me to describe them all!

Anyway, once Jen finished, we hopped aboard a commuter train to Kyoto, checking out the mountains on the way. 

Kyoto is a smaller city than Osaka, not that that is necessarily good or bad, but it has a very different, more slow-paced, feel to it.

We dropped our stuff off at the hostel (BJ Family House), the finding of which should provide a warning to tourists in Japan: city streets are not always clearly marked, or if so, are marked in Kanji (Japanese characters). When they are marked, as in Kyoto, they are often named as a combination of the two streets (so Shijo-dori and Kawaramachi-dori become Shijokawaramachi on the signs). We figured it out quickly, but it's something to be aware of. Streets are often labelled, but when outside the main 'tourist spots' it can be a little confusing.

Anyway, then we were off to check out some of the sights. We first visited two massive temples, Higashi- and Nishi-Honganji Temples, near Kyoto Station. The entire district is labelled as World Heritage Sites by UNESCO, due to the sheer size of the temples and how gorgeous they are. It's interesting, again, to note the differences between the Japanese, Korean, and Chinese architectural styles we've seen so far. China tends to build large, with massive stone and jade and gold structures, Korea tends for more simple stone and tile buildings, while Japan emphasizes wood and bark (especially in the Torii or spirit gates of temples). 

We then went to Gion District, the old geisha area, to see if we could catch a show at Minamiza Theater--no luck, but we'll try again next time we're in Japan. I really want to see a Noh play or a Kabuki production.

The next morning, we were off to the Kyoto Imperial Palace, which you have to get permission to visit beforehand. The Palace is interesting, and the former seat of the Imperial Family of Japan. It, and nearby Nijo-jo (castle) were where the Tokugawa Shogunate surrendered power back to the Emperor Meiji.

Nijo, meanwhile, was our personal favorites. Check this place out if you're in Kyoto--it has the world's only remaining nightingale floor. Jen has a link to it on her blog, here. The sound it makes is amazing: it sounds like birds chirping whenever you try to walk on it. No ninja getting in here, sorry to say!

The fortification was used by the Tokugawa Shoguns whenever they visited Kyoto (to meet the Emperor) and was quite impressive. What astounds me the most is how in tune Japanese buildings like this are with nature. In China, Tienanmen Square and most of Beijing is a concrete block. Beautiful and stark, yes, but very much man-made. Nijo and the temples are literally enmeshed in trees. Especially our favorite example, from the next day: Kiyomizu-deru.

I'll leave off at Kiyomizu, since it was the last big thing we saw: a Buddhist temple built into the side of a mountain, literally overhanging over the valley and forest, with a magnificent view of Kyoto beyond.

(Kiyomizu-Deru)

I also have to admit, while I have included pictures of the Buddhist temples (they are massive, after all), I tend to prefer the Shinto shrines: they are simple, peaceful, and almost understated in their intentions to honor the kami, or spirit, of the area they are built in. They are ubiquitous in Japan, and represent a polite quality to spirituality: instead of building up, the Shinto tradition seems to be to build in, that is, to create a space within an area, and allow people to simply become part of that space as well.

While both are not my tradition, I do have a great deal of respect for Shinto and Buddhism.

We got a few stares walking around the shrines of the former, as Shinto is an inherently Japanese tradition, but still, we never once felt unwelcome in any place we visited.

A wonderful trip, to be sure, and one I would recommend to anyone else. 

Best regards, all,

Chris

Week One of Intensives, Birthdays

Hi all,

Well, Jen had her birthday on Thursday, January the 8th. We celebrated with a bottle of wine at home and watching some videos from www.ted.com, which was nice since we were both exhausted. While it may not sound like the most romantic of evenings, considering that we both had had an extra 9-15 hours of work this week (before factoring in our presence at the office yesterday--Saturday) we felt a large party that evening before having to get up for another 12 hour day was out of the question.

Why so much work? Well, we just finished week one of our Intensives, which is when all the Korean kids come into the Academy for more studying when they're on winter holiday. I have one poor kid who is also in my wife's class. She is in 6 Academies, including two classes at our school--mine and Jen's. Both of those classes are 3 hours a-piece, and she goes five days a week. Now imagine how much more work she has on top of this from her other Academies, and homework and... well, I don't blame her for being less exuberant than Jen describes her as being normally. 

I can also understand how Korean kids hate vacation. I asked all of my kids what they planned to do for the January break, and the answer was, universally, study. The one or two who were going on trips were also, unsurprisingly, studying on the plane flight.

So, we took a break from that on Friday night for Chicken, Beer, and Noraebang. Exactly like it sounds, we went out to a Hof, which is basically a fried chicken and beer bar, and ate some stuff that will probably contribute to health issues in later life if I ate it everyday. It was, of course, utterly delicious.

The Noraebang was awesome, and we spent a good hour and a half belting out songs completely off-key, before heading to Pavox, a local bar, to have a few late night drinks. I think we've adapted well to the Korean style of partying: basically, all bloody night. While my headache the next morning was nothing to sneeze at, it was well worth it for bonding with our two new teachers, Paulina and Sionna, both from Bermuda, and for helping everybody unwind after a very long week.

Well, back at it in another twelve to sixteen hours. 

Cheers, everybody,

Chris