Next Step

The past couple of weeks I've been dutifully finishing job interviews left and right.  My contract is coming to a close in 삼척 and though I have enjoyed my time here in the TaLK program, it's time for me to move on to a different place.  A new experience awaits.  An extension is not in order.

Samcheok has provided me with a truly unique experience of Korea and has served as a stepping stone to things better in Korea.  However, I'll take my chances in a big city now.

Though starting a new chapter to my life is thrilling, there are a plethora of choices available to me which do become a burden, however a good burden.  I remember reading action novels as a kid, the ones where the character is faced with a dilemma and the reader chooses the outcome of the story by flipping to a specific page, leading to a different outcome.    When faced with the decision to jump down the chute or to run down the hall, I would chose the chute because it seemed cool.  However, I've learned that I should take a more methodical approach to my decision making because I can't turn back the pages of my life if the figurative chute leads to a pit of razor sharp knives.

Too bad I haven't been running.  That is my meditation and thinking time.  Where are those new running shoes????

Traditional Korean Painting Pictures So far

Tiger and Birds (Needs a coat of coffee beans to be finished)

Detailed View of Flowers

Full Flower Shot

Sick in Korean

Cough.....Cough....Weeze......

I've had a nagging cough for the past week and a half and it seems to never go away.  This past Thursday my hearing started to deteriorate for no reason.  Come on I'm only 23 and my hearing is going?  Feels as though there is some water in my ear that cannot get out.  On Friday, I decided enough was enough and get checked out.  This lead to me going to the hospital.  Hospital?  No, I wasn't dying but that is what you do in Korea.  If you have the smallest ache everyone tells you to go to the hospital.  There doesn't seem to be any Doctor offices here but hospitals.

So what is a trip to the Hospital like?
I walked in gave the desk my alien registration card and they told me to go to the internal medicine part of the hospital.  I handed this folder to the nurse and sat down.  She called me 패터릭님 Patrick-nim which I was confused but she pointed me over and I got the message.  They thought my first name was Patrick...haha  Anyway, after getting my heart rate checked she told me to wait out in the hall.  There were about 7 other grandparent aged people all sitting down waiting for their turn.  I'd have to say it was really quick just walking in and having them check me out.  Not 5 minutes later, the nurse calls my name and I head in to see the doctor.  Now I prepared how to describe my ailments in Korean to the doctor but I was surprised that his English was actually quite good.  He told me to get an x-ray, which I quickly found at the other side of the building, where 3 people were waiting for me.  1-2-3 I had 10 x-rays done. Another 5 minute wait and I was back sitting with the doctor.  He said that I have Bronchitis and an ear infection.  A couple of clicks in his computer and he sent me out with no further directions.  The nurse, at 1,000 miles per hour, says something to me in Korean.  Ugh I nodded and said I understood.  I wondered and came back.  I asked her to slow down and she spoke a little slower.  I figured out that I had to go to the cashier and pay.  $40 for the hospital fee (my insurance will knock that to $5) and I had to find the drug store.  There was a drug store in the hospital but I guess that is only for special people.  People kept saying outside there is a pharmacy.  Well outside there are 40 pharmacies and I didn't know that I could go to anyone of them.

About $30 of medicine

So the overall experience was interesting.  I'd say it was actually really easy and took approximately an hour to do something that would take well over an hour in the States and with insurance costs 1/10th the amount it would in the States.  Now I just need to really get over this sickness.

Guitar'n in rural Korea

Ever since I started studying Music Therapy, my desire to play guitar has declined.  There was no need to practice scales, ii-v-I's, improvisation, arpeggios and other guitar skills because I needed to grow my repertoire that the clients preferred.  I never got the same kind of kick out of picking up a piece of sheet music, arranging a chord solo and playing it till I could play it in my sleep.  Since coming to Korea, I have not really taken the chance to practice as much as I can because there is no one to play with.  Or so I thought.

To catch my readers up on the situation, my Korean Grandpa has been introducing my friend and I to many people.  I guess he enjoys having company and he knows all of Samcheok.  Anyway, he heard that I play guitar and studied it in school.  This meant Grandpa had to introduce me to guitar players now.  He just so happens to know the owner of one of the music shops and introduced me to him a few weeks ago.  We were scheduled to meet last night and I showed up with my electric.  He clearly wanted to test me by throwing a piece of sheet music in front of me.  NO, don't do that!  It's been 3 years since I've really practiced sight reading!  Let's just say I was rusty.  A few more students came in to I guess have lessons and I was there playing along.  Guitar lessons in Korea aren't one on one they are like classes.  The kids were beginners of varying degrees.  The owner asked for me to play them a song to which I played "Fly me to the Moon" chord solo style and they enjoyed it.  The owner than started to play this fast melodic ditty over and over again and I followed with my ear.  He wouldn't slow down for some reason nor would he slow down to help teach the kids a new technique.  Anyway, I took his melodic motif and turned it into a blues I-IV-V that we both could jam over and he seemed to like it.  Clearly in Korea, it is a little weird to jam over a song or improvise and just to play straight off sheet music, but at least I have someone I can play with anytime I want.

His wife showed up around 8pm and he demanded I come with them to get food.  We went around the corner and got pig intestine, pig rib and pig stomach.... oh so good!  They were impressed that I could eat the food, like every other Korean, but I enjoyed talking with them and practicing my Korean.  Finally, I met someone I can practice Korean with and jam with!  This will motivate me to practice more guitar.

Mountain Climbing and 회식

Mountains are everywhere here.  My morning bus ride takes me through a short course of mountains to get to my school.  Some of my friends have to travel up the mountains to get to their school and I'm fortunate enough not to have to go through that trouble.  Anyways, I went on a hiking trip with my school at one of the nearby mountains.  What an experience that was.

When Koreans climb, they climb.  They aren't joking when they say they are going climbing.  They have the specific climbing clothes, backpacks, gloves, hats, titanium hiking sticks, food, drink and canteens with compasses on them specifically to drink soju with.  I, on the other hand, was decked out in my hoody, sweats and running shoes.  I was pretty shabbily dressed compared to the other teachers.  

I quickly realized that the mountain we were climbing was actually a mountain and not some nob of a hill called a mountain in the states.  The trail we traversed was very steep and in some parts nearly vertical in which you had to use the ropes that were planted on the trail.  Most people frown at a challenge of this nature but I enjoyed it!  

The gym teacher and I were at the head of the pack and we quickly made our way up the mountain.  The time that was posted said an hour but it took us two around 40 minutes to reach the top.  The view from the top was amazing.  We were literally on a rock on the top of the mountain 625 meters above sea level, I'm pretty sure.  We waited for the others to arrive and when they did the first thing that came out of the expensive mountain backpacks were soju and snack foods.  One of the teachers even pulled out some kind of Russian Vodka.  Again its so different to have this kind of bonding experience with your co-workers but it was fun.  

After pictures, eating and drinking we carefully made our way down the STEEP mountain after drinking.  Not a good idea!  And to top it off the guy who drank the most was at the front.  Usually if I said this about a group of Americans someone would have fell, but because I guess this is the common thing to do in Korea and Koreans have a lot of experience mountain climbing after drinking so no one fell.  

We later went out to dinner where we proceeded to drink more and eat meat.  My mentor teacher wasn't able to make it to the mountain climbing session and has been MIA because he's been busy writing a 100 page report on something so I haven't seen him.  But, he made it to the dinner and that was a good to have him there.  Compared with the last 회식 this one seemed like a lot of people needed to let off some steam and destress.  One of the teachers got quite inebriated but still kept her composure while we went out to the noraebang after dinner.  The noraebang was fun because I got to see everyone care free and having a fun time.  

Pyeong Yang Play

Korea is much different than my home.  The people, culture, architecture, scenery, etc,. but Korea has many subtle hints of western influence.  I can't buy a coffee without calling it a 커피(Kah-pi), and there are many English words that have somehow made into the daily lives of many Koreans.  Add to the fact that I've lived in this country for a few months and it has started to feel like home.

Tuesday, however, I got a sneak peek into a culture that is so foreign to my western mind.  My Korean Grandpa took my friend and I to a play at the Cultural Center in Samcheok.  I wasn't expecting much, but soon found out the play he was taking us to was going to be performed by North Koreans, escapees that is.  The country is so isolated that once I heard North Koreans were going to be performing a cultural play, my ears quickly shot up.  There is simply an exotic taboo factor that I have associated with North Korean culture and people.  I've heard so much of this country and understand so little about it and I was going to see North Koreans in real life. It's safe to say I'm one of the very few Americans to experience this and I felt honored to expand my cultural horizons above the limits set by the American media that I've been exposed to all my life.  

However, I have to take everything about North Korea with a grain of salt.  Kim Jong Il could have sent these ladies out of their country to further promote the "greatness" of his country, or not but all I did was enjoy the performance.

It mainly consisted of ladies dancing around to old Korean songs and karaoke singing to the old songs.  In many situations that would have been boring, but these ladies were just simply different.  The way they moved and their appearance was very noticeable.  My eyes were first drawn to their faces.  I don't know if it was the amount of old soviet style make-up on their face or something else, they looked slightly different than most South Koreans I've seen.  Their smiles also lit up the auditorium for the whole duration, 2 hours, of the performance.  I caught myself thinking that they must be very happy but I quickly reminded myself of the tortures these women must have went through in their lives.  You could see in their faces and arms that these ladies missed a few meals while they were growing up.  I wondered what status they must have been when they were in North Korea?  If they fled they must have been of the lower class.  

It was also interesting to listen to the differences, as well.  Their dialect and pronunciation was very different from what I had been use to.  Every word was overly enunciated but I couldn't tell if that was speech talking or normal talk.  My understanding of Korean at a natural fluent speed is roughly 20% these days but I couldn't understand more than a few words by these ladies.  The music also felt like it just came out of the 1950's but all of the older folks in the audience sang the lyrics.

I couldn't imagine what it felt like for the large majority of the crowd because many of them grew up during the time when Korea wasn't split.  I just simply sat their and enjoyed everything I could from it.

망가지는 안경 Broken Glasses

어제 안경이 망가저서 새안경 160,000원 셨습니다.  한국에서 이안경은 아주 비싸지만 미국에서 똑같이 안경이 싸습니다.  나의 저번이 안경은 370,000원 들었습니다.  새 안경이 너무 좋아지만 랜스도 사고 해야 합니다.  저 저축하기때문에 많이 대학신용대부 있습니다.  많이도 출금하고 싶습니다. 나의 돈 조심한 되야 합니다.

*This isn't a direct translation and some extra information is provided*

Yesterday, I broke my glasses and bought a new pair for 160,000won from the 형님 that my friends and I hang out with.  Thank god he's an optometrist.  He even gave me the lenses for free!  Anyway, he showed me all the different kinds of frame styles but the most expensive pair really caught my eye.  The specks bent and seem indestructible and for less than half the price of my last glasses, 370,000 won, I was sold.  In the states I'm sure these glasses would go for 2-3x more than the price here.   Some frames were only selling for 20,000won.  I opted on investing in a pair that will last and look good.  I also have to buy contact lenses which are still cheaper here so buying glasses is sort of a set back.  I have to save money to pay off my ridiculously large student loans and I want to keep investing in stocks and bonds for my future home, business and retirement.   I have to keep an eye on my finances and be careful.