Flesh Eating Fish in 3D

No, the answer to your burning question, I didn't see Piranha in 3D. Though, I did have a very 3D flesh eating experience.

Last week I went to a cafe in downtown Daejeon that had something called "Dr. Fish." (You'll have to forgive me for being so late on this post [cough cough, Brian]. I'm having to play a little catch up. Sadly I've joined the devoted group of Dexter watchers and it's consuming the time that I would otherwise spend doing... well, just about anything else.. blogging included.  Lesson: I have no self control when it comes to addictive TV series. Please save my personal life; do not recommend new ones.).

I went with a group to grab a coffee and get my feet exfoliated by these tiny fish that eat the dead skin from your feet. We walked up to the pool area and washed our feet (don't want to kill the little monsters, I suppose) then we grabbed a pillow and sat on the side of a small pool filled with 50+ fish.  It's amazing how quickly they swarmed our feet.  Poor little guys must not get a variety of food or I don't think they'd be so eager to snack on us. It was a really weird sensation. It tickled mostly and that, mixed with the novelty, had me laughing for a solid 3 minutes. It felt like bubbles, really.

And then like a flip of a switch, I felt a little horrified.  My mind twisted the image of tiny fish tickling my feet to swarms of fish eating my dead skin... which is precisely what Dr. Fish is.  I hadn't realized that I was doing it, but a friend mentioned that I was sullenly staring at the fish. He was right, I was. It was all becoming less funny and more grotesque by the flesh eating minute.

After an hour in the pool and upon a final examination of my feet, I'm not all that sure that Dr. Fish did much exfoliating. Cool experience. I'd go back, but maybe to get a coffee and to smuggle the little piranhas some fish food flakes instead.

Happy Pepero Day!

Peperos!

I learned an interesting cultural nugget about Korea today.  Korea is full of quirky holidays. 

I walked into my elementary school this morning and was immediately greeted by smiling children holding up red, green, and golden boxes-- some wrapped, some with ribbons, but each holding thin long stick cookies, dipped in chocolate.  "Jessica Teacher! Pepero!" as they gestured the boxes in my direction.  I couldn't help myself, each additional box of peperos made me want to skip down the hall. I threw my arms around my students, thanking them profusely while most stood stunned with their hands at their sides. I suppose some of them might have felt a tad accosted by what (only now) appears to have been an overreaction to stick shaped cookies. As uncomfortable they might have felt, I couldn't stop hugging them if I tried. I saw my co-teacher, Shi On, chuckle as I hugged one of our students on the way out of class 6-5.  She, with more grace, accepted her box of peperos by simply saying, "thank you."  My defense: It was my first pepero day experience! I felt so loved <3  

I had been warned (somewhat) about pepero day. I spent 5k won (roughly 5 U.S. dollars) on six boxes of peperos the day before, thinking that number should be sufficient. My thought was that if any students gave me a box, I would give them one in return.  Not knowing the scale of this holiday, I didn't want too many. After all, any remaining boxes would only end up back in my apartment!... . . . I should have bought a few *dozen* more! I gave the first six away in a snap.  Then I resorted to recycling the boxes I had been given by giving them to other students.  Finally I gave up after I realized that even this tactic could not sustain the pace. I did what the other teachers did: I accepted the boxes, thanked them for it, and watched them giggle as they scampered off (but not without a squeeze!).

Pepero day is celebrated on 11/11. It's a day when young Korean children and couples exchange this delightful cookie.  Pepero's, if you'll notice, are in the same shape as the "1"s in it's date. And there you have it folks! All it takes to make a Korean holiday...chocolate dipped cookies in the shape of the date they are celebrated.  What a fantastic marketing scheme, Lotte Department Store (the manufacturers of peperos).

Pepero Day, as I learned from the teacher's table at lunch, falls into a long list of commercialized holidays in Korea. The 14th day of every month is some kind of holiday for couples, which is appropriate for a country that obsesses about marital status.  (When I got to this country the string of questions that I was usually asked started with "Are you single [single=not married] ?'  "Do you have a boyfriend?" "Do you want a boyfriend?" "Do you want a Korean boyfriend?" and "How old are you?")  So here they are:
January 14th: calendar/planner day. Couples give each other this gift ... I guess to help them remember the next eleven
February 14: Valentines Day: An imported holiday, but uniquely Korean. Women give gifts to men on this day. No worries ladies, it's made up for triple fold on ..
March 14th: White day:  The day men reciprocate by giving gifts to women that are worth 3 times the value they received on February 14th.  Way to go ladies! clever thinking!
April 14th: Black Day: I don't think I would have survived my adolescence with a holiday like this.  Singles who did not celebrate on feb. 14th and march 14th get together a eat ja jang myun - a black noodle soup or anything else black. So let me get this straight... couples get candy and flowers... singles get to eat black food together to morn their single status. ummm.. I don't think so. You can keep that one Korea!
May 14th: Rose day: Couples exchange roses
June 14th: Kiss Day:  self-explanatory
July 14th: now here's a good one: silver day: couples exchange silver jewelry. I think this holiday needs to make it's way back to the States
August 14th: couples drink Soju (a rice liquor in a green bottle) and take long walks in the woods. I suppose in Korean fashion singles can drink themselves into a stupor
September 14th: Photo Day: ... I think you've got it
November 14th: Movie day
December 14th: Hug day

I came home with a bag full of pretty little boxes of peperos. Now to pawn them off.  I went to yoga tonight and was able to give away 6.  If this sounds like a charitable act, I assure you, my waist line is thanking me for this.  I love and hate the thought of eating peperos for the next 3 weeks.

Peperos that I received from students <3

Rising with the Monks

Golgul Temple

Last weekend was Halloween and I decided to do something a bit non-traditional. I didn't put on face paint or go to a party, but I did dress up.... if you're willing to count Buddhist trainee garb as a costume. They have programs in Korea where people have the opportunity to live like a Buddhist monk in a temple for a weekend.  I think it's safe to say that I couldn't have done something more polarizing than stay in a temple the weekend of Halloween, but in hindsight (and with a little more sleep) I'm really glad I went.

It was a beautiful time of year to go into the mountains near Gyeongju.  Like home, the leaves are changing this time of year so it was very colorful this weekend. Not to mention, we got lucky with the weather: no rain and temperatures in the 60s.

We got there around 2 on Saturday, checked in, got our temple uniform (i.e Halloween costume) and jumped right into a lesson in archery.   My friend and I noted that the master of archery shattered our imagine of a Buddhist monk. He was a Norweigan man is his late 20's with blond hair and blue eyes. But boy, were we ever wrong in doubting him. Could he ever hit a bulls eye! And later in our stay he led the yoga and Samudo training as well.  Samudo is a form of martial arts and yoga that's practiced in this particular temple. Being a Buddhist form of martial arts, Samudo is never used to harm anyone.  They don't even pretend to hit one another in Samudo routines.  I think it can best be described as a form of dance that synchronizes the mind and body.  

A Samudo performance from young boys training to be monks.

The temple uniform reminded me of something between Aladdin (the big baggy tapered pants and vest) and an inmate (orange vest).

The guy standing right behind me is the archery master. As a side note: I hit the target on this shot (it was the one and only time)

This is where I "slept" Saturday night. The two blankets and pillow on the top shelf made my "bed" on the floor.  My roommate, a Korean girl who was roughly my age, took the set on the bottom shelf.  We went to bed around 10 that night after 2 hours of Samudo training.  One monk emphasized the importance of our attendance to the early morning chanting and meditation service.  Missing this event meant missing breakfast and 3000 bows as punishment. Needless to say, I was really worried that I wouldn't wake up to the 4:00 wake up call.  I can say now that there was no need for me to be so worried. I hardly slept that night. I think I checked my watch at least 4 or 5 times and I had been laying awake on the floor for an hour before I heard the monks chanting at 4am to wake the community. 

Before the birds were singing, we trekked up to the temple  (I don't think I'm exaggerating when I say we had to hike to the top of the mountain to get there.. maybe they make monks hike to the top to increase their gratitude in reaching the temple).  Just a few things about temple procedures that I learned and experienced.  Buddhist temples have three doors (two on the sides and one in the front).  Only the monks enter the front entrance.  You never enter with your shoes on and once you walk in you should do 3 half bows immediately.  Then you grab a small pillow and do 3 full bows. A full bow means that you put your hands together in a prayer position in the center of your chest and bow halfway at your waist. Then dropping to a kneeling position, your forearms and forehead must touch the floor. You hold that position for a half second and then turn your palms face up and (with your forehead still touching the ground) raise your palms above your ears. If  it sounds complicated.. it's not. You do that three times representing your thanks for the 3 jewels: the Buddha, the Dharma (his teachings), and the Sangha (those who have found enlightenment).

The morning chanting service was quite neat.  The monks were already seated on their pillows in the front when we walked in. We filed in and followed suit. The chants were in Korean and though we had romanized translations, I really couldn't follow. I listened instead as I did the 108 bows. 

Then came the hard part: 30 minutes of meditation.  I know sitting for 30 minutes doesn't sound difficult, but you'll have to trust me when I say it was harder than sleeping on the floor that night.  Several things about it are hard. First, you sit in something called the half-lotus position, which will kill anyone's knees, hips, and, especially for me, back.  Second, you're told to "quiet your mind" and focus on your breathing.  It's hard for anyone to keep their mind quiet, but I found that my mind is like a small child in this regard. In telling it not to do something, it of course, had to do it... and man, was it loud.

Meditation went something like this:
"Aww, this is kind of nice being able to close my eyes.. I could sleep.. would they catch me if I slept.. would I have to do the bows if they caught me.. maan, its got to be 4:35.. I wish I could look at my watch.. probably 4:36 now..  that's 3:36 at home.. I wonder what everyone's doing.. I'd give anything not to be doing this right now... ooo, ooo, okay, my back hurts.. I want to reposition but how quietly can I do this.. that was a little loud.. .straighten your back.. please, god, just let the time go by..  maybe another 23 more minutes to go.. okay, focus, focus on your breath...fill your chest and empty it out.. fill your chest and empt.."  Then a few golden seconds of silence.  "hey, I'm doing it!.. .damn it." 

We followed the sitting meditation with a walking meditation down to the dining hall for breakfast. I could handle doing walking meditation all day in comparison! There was no pain and it was pitch dark .. which for me, made it so much easier to zone out. The wind was blowing and because we were only a little ways from the coast I could smell the salt in the air. Walking meditation was a much more pleasant experience and I think a more successful one, at that.

Breakfast on Sunday was a traditional Buddhist ceremony. It was complicated and ritualized... two things that made me pretty nervous. A few interesting parts:  Buddhists monks don't eat for pleasure, they eat simply to sustain their bodies (If the meditation didn't rule this lifestyle out for me, then that stipulation definitely did. I enjoy food). When they eat that eat mindfully and with gratitude.  Not a single grain of rice or drop of water can be wasted. So we had to eat every bit of food that we received. I mean every. grain. of rice. If we didn't then the monks would have sent us back to finish.  We had to clean our 4 bowls ourselves with a little bit of hot water and a piece of cabbage.  We had to drink the remaining water and eat the cabbage (I know that sounds horrifying, but it really wasn't bad... they are vegetarian so in the end it was just hot spiced water that we were drinking). 

Tea Ceremony: Through a translator we were able to ask one of the monks questions. It was the only time we were able to speak to them.

What did I get from this experience: well, apart from the bags under my eyes, I did leave with a greater knowledge of Buddhism and a new found appreciation and mindfulness of the food that I eat and the bed that I sleep on... oh and gratitude for backed chairs... I'd be okay if I never had to sit in the half lotus position again.

These two pictures are of the group who did the temple stay this weekend. Nice people from a lot of different places: Norway, Korea, Iceland, Iran, and Germany

This is Halloween!

We made Halloween masks last week in class!

Sadly, Korea does not celebrate Halloween.  Under any other circumstance this news would have brought me to my knees last week.  I love Halloween.  However, I had 20 classes of 5th and 6th graders in my hands, which proved to be a more than excellent way to get into the Halloween spirit.  It's like taking a kid with you to see the newest Disney movie that you've been dying to see, but felt too silly to see by yourself.

We had a good time. The lesson consisted of a brief history and a montage of Halloween pictures: bats, ghouls, witches, jack-o-lanterns, Dracula, Frankenstein, zombies, and Halloween costumes: kids their age dressed as skeletons and fairies, babies in costume, even dogs (they got a kick out seeing a chihuahua dressed as an angel). 

Quotables:
After showing them a picture of a witch.. Me: "Can anyone tell me what this is?"  One student: "A grandmother!"  .. Okay, I don't know what his grandmother looks like, but mine does not have a crooked nose, green skin, and a mole with a long hair on her chin.

Me: "Okay, good, it's a vampire! And what do vampires do?"  Students:  "Bite neck!" "Eat blood!" "Drink pee!" ... hmmm.. okay, here was an excellent teaching opportunity. "Okay good, vampires bite necks, but do we say 'eat blood??'''  "NO!"  "Good, No! We say 'drink blood'"  ..Now to address "drink pee".. ?..

Me: "Do you know what this is? It's a mummy!"  Students: "hehe, mummy.. mommy."

Of course, I had to show them clips from Michael Jackson's Thriller music video and two clips from my favorite childhood movies, "Hocus Pocus" and "The Nightmare Before Christmas."

Then came the fun part: masks! Any excuse to pull out the art supplies, right?

Sponge Bob!

Pororo! A Korean cartoon.

Unfortunately, the color is washed out on this one.  I don't know if you can tell, but this student made a Homer Simpson mask. I was so impressed because it's so hard to get this student to participate in class. As you can see, it was a struggle to get him to pose for a picture. But he did it! Yay!

Some students really got into it!

This one is just too cute

If she appears to be a little older than a 6th grader it's because she is. My co-teacher made a mask too! 

 Some kids really got into it by putting time and effort into their mask while others finished as quickly as they could.  Of course, candy was a "carrot and stick" for most of them.  Once they finished they held up their mask, said trick-or-treat, and got candy.  They had to have the full Halloween experience.. and what's Halloween without candy?

Busan in a Snap(shot)

I took a quick sprint down to Busan last weekend.  Busan is a port city in the southern tip of Korea, famous for their fish market, live octopus tentacle (a Busan delicacy), fireworks, The Busan Film Festival, and home to the worlds largest... department store. I am now happy to check worlds largest department store off my life long list of things to see. I could tell you that I went down there for the fish market or the fireworks, but I think we all know the real motivation ;)

So if this blog is taking on the feel of a picture book, I apologize. Teaching ESL in an elementary school is starting to really influence my blogging style. I'm going to do with this blog like I do with my kids.. lots of pictures less talking. Whats the saying? A picture says...

The port where fish are delivered every morning at 6am.  I couldn't wake myself up early enough to catch this prime fish market hour, but I've been told that it's a circus.

Fish market

Octopus: These little friends would not be ideal for the Busan delicacy.  The trick is to cut a tentacle off a live octopus.  While the synapses are still firing and the suckers on the tentacle are still sucking, you dip the piece of tentacle in hot sauce and eat it. The hot sauce is actually a really important step as it is something for the suckers to hold on to because they could stick to your throat. A few people have died from eating this "delicacy." I didn't try it, but give me a few months and I might be more up to it.

I've talked about ajimas (Korean grandmothers) before. This is a prime shot of an ajima selling at the fish market.

This was amazing. Hundreds of squid. My camera lens wasn't wide enough to show just how many were there.

Squid

I don't know if anyone else watches the show "Dirty Jobs," but Mike Rowe did an episode on these critters.. slime eels, also known as hag fish. They are a Korean favorite. I see them in tanks all over the city.

Here's another "Dirty Jobs" episode that I came across... Gooey Ducks. You'd have to look it up. 

Korea's walk of fame

Haeunnae Beach: This area is swarming with people in the summer. Luckily we missed that in October. Funny cultural lesson learned here. Koreans swim with their clothes over their swimming suits. I saw two boys coming out of the ocean fully clothed. No need to say that it's a fairly conservative society.

This is not an "aww, that's so cute" picture! This is an "I'm disgusted!" picture. Before you think I'm a total cynic, let me explain. I don't know if you can tell clearly, but this couple is wearing a matching outfit. . head to toe.. the shoes, the jeans, the sweater. It is so common to see couple outfits here in Korea. I love the culture, I love the people, I do not love matching outfits. I'm so happy this is not something that has made its way to the States.  

 

 

This is a famous Busan icon to have a picture taken with (sorry Jenny, I ended a sentence with a preposition).

BIFF: Busan International Fireworks Festival. The internet told me there were ~ 1.5 million people watching from this stretch of beach.  I believe it! (It was a couple few more than I would have liked).  We made the mistake of not getting there 4 hours early to reserve a spot on the beach, which put us in the peanut gallery. It was hard move, forget finding a place to sit.

The fireworks were shot from this famous bridge in Busan. I believe that's water coming down.

The finally: Despite the hordes of people, the fireworks were amazing.

Exploration+No phone+ No money+ A fragile sense of Direction = Lost

I nearly got lost... again. I swear I'm not a totally incompetent navigator. If you give me a general direction and an end point I can usually stumble and bumble my way there and probably back again (note: "probably"). It's just that living in a Korean city has shaken the foundations of my already delicate sense of direction.

With that said, I've been exploring different directions from my apartment on my long Sunday runs. Today I looked at the map and saw a sizable chunk of green south of me. A park! I had to find it. From what I could tell, I could run south along one road that started with a "D" for a ways and at some point veer right, which would put me smack dab in it. It was a large enough park that I thought, surely there's no missing it and I was right about that. There was no missing the park... getting back was a different story.

I found the park without a hitch. It was a bit of a trek to the top because it appears to be the highest point within the city limits. I tried running up the hill.  That was a Swing and a Miss!  I couldn't tell you the grade, but whatever it was it was way too steep for my sad legs that were already fatigued from running (figuratively) around Busan this weekend.

The park was really nice. I wasn't there for long because the sun was going down and I knew I had to get back.  I saw quite a few hiking trails and a really big fitness facility with basketball courts, tennis courts, and a running track.

I haven't notice this until now, but in parks or even along the side of nicer pedestrian walkways Korea has exercise equipment set out for the public. I'm talking ellipticals, stationary bikes, calf presses, and places to do sit-ups and pull-ups. I haven't seen very many young people using the machines, but plenty of ajimas (a Korean word for old married women).  Ajimas, fully equipped with their neck to toe track suit and visor, move spryly on the ellipticals.  But don't let these little ajimas fool you! They look cute, but they have quite the reputation for their less than amiable personalities and aggressive shoving on the metro or anywhere on the street if you happen to be in their way.

As I said, the park looked to be the highest elevation in the city so I thought I might catch a clear view of the city. I walked further and further along a ridge in hopes that it would open up. It never did. It makes sense hindsight.  I wanted to see a view of the city because I'm not native. The Koreans who go to this park go to get away from the city. They want their own patch of green not more brick and concrete.  

Part Two: The Journey back:  On the way back I made a grave mistake. I found the entrance to the park by taking a series of lefts and rights until I ran into it, really, by chance. So my thought was that on the way back I would try to find a more direct route.  (Mistake, I know. It made sense to me at the time.) The problem being that (as in the case of getting lost before) city planning is not a true grid system here. Streets cut across one another in every direction.  For example, I started on a street that looked to be heading northward (where I needed to go), but I found that it was really running northeast (ever so slightly, but enough to knock me way off course).  I knew I was looking for a street that started with a "D" and I thought that if I saw it again it would look familiar, but all of the street names began to look the same. "Was it Dongsero or Daedeokdaero or Daedunsanno?... ?? " Mistake number two: I left the apartment with only my key and music. I didn't have a phone, I didn't have money, and I was lost.  I'll admit, I started to panic, which meant that at that point I had terrible images of myself crying, begging someone to help back to Galleria Timeworld (the biggest landmark near my apartment). Thankfully, I didn't have to resort to that. The sun was going down on my left so I knew I was walking north and I (by the grace of some higher power) found my way back.

There is a lesson here: stay away from the Ajimas (they body check like pro hockey player) and always, always have a cell phone (or a way to buy one) when I leave the apartment.

h"A" Girls! Let's hear it!

My blood  type is A. I realize that this is of no real importance to anyone reading this, but to Koreans a person's blood type gives insight to their personality. It's one of a few unique questions that I've gotten on occasion here. Supposedly it's like someone asking you what your sign is in the States. I, personally, place about the same weight on the relevance of both.. that being, very little.

When I told the ladies at my lunch circle that I'm blood type A they all nodded in unison. I desperately looked to Jella, my main co-teacher (and life line here), for some sort of translation. "It's good for women to be blood type A," she said.  Natually, I asked her what A meant about my personality. All she could really tell me clearly was that a person with blood type A was usually timid. hmmm..  Tell me again why this is a good blood type for women in Korea??

So for kicks, I looked a little more into this blood type thing. The relevance of blood types came to Korea from Japan and took off. So here it is:
Blood Type A:
Positive Traits: Conservative, introverted, reserved, patient, punctual and inclined to be perfectionists.
Worst Traits: Obsessive, stubborn, self conscious and uptight.
Referred as ‘farmers’ in some descriptions, Type A’s are said to be considerate of others and loyal to a fault. They can also be secretive and reluctant to share their feelings.

I could say, "yep that's me" to about half of them and in the same breath I could say that some of those in no way resemble me. (i.e. punctual.. perfectionist.. hah!)  It reminded me a lot of reading my horoscope.  Its so broad that parts of this personality catalog could describe my dog, Ben. He's a little introverted and obsessive. (We have affectionately termed his reaction to human contact as the "Ben Bunge".. which is a made up term that refers to how he hunches in cowardice with his butt in the air. No, we've never beat our dog. He came that way).

All of this being said, back to my original question: why is A a good type for women?  Well Korea is still very much a male dominated society, which (from what I've been told) is founded in Confucianism. Confucianism might have originated in China, but Koreans have taken it and run. Briefly, Confucianism is an ideology and one pillar of that ideology is the emphasis placed on respecting a social hierarchy. Children and women are at the bottom, then men (each stratified based on education and class) and then at the top are the elderly. Koreans have a huge amount of respect for their elders.

It's unfortunate, but from my own personal observation I've seen male dominance already in my kids at the elementary school level.  You ask a question to the class and I'm willing to bet that 98-100% of the hands up are from the boys. Nearly every time.  They are shouting out the answer or jumping out of their seats, wiggling their little hands in the air, begging you to pick them. The girls: silent.  I've ignored the boys with their hands flailing in the air and picked out a girl to answer on occasion.  It shocks them. It's understood that the students with their hands raised get called on.  I have no doubt that the girls know the material. After all, of the kids that have been writing me letters, all but one of them are girls. I have one boy who writes to me. So what does this mean?  My girls don't have a voice ... and I don't know how to give them one.