Talent

I know I'm supposed to be talking about Beijing, but just had to report that we will be teaching a child star starting in March here at Song-pa Kid's College. A small child, his name I can't remember now of course, graced us with his presence today during elementary classes. I came back after our break to a classroom of children yelling this kid's name. It took at least 5 mins for me to finally understand what my kid's meant when they said "moives" "playroom" and the kid's name. As far as I can tell this is on par with getting Macaulay Culkin in your school during his Home Alone days.
God help the teacher that gets him in thier class.....

Also, it's in the 50's here...bring on spring time!

The Forbidden City

It's huge!

Sadly that is the extent of my expertise of the subject. We ended up running through the world's largest palace complex in one hour just before is closed at noon on New Years Eve day. We had intentions of perhaps coming back at the end of the trip in order to fully absorb all the historical significance that is contained in a place that housed emperors from two dynasties for over 500 years, but we ended up wondering along a souvenir alleyway instead. The trip itself had happened so organically that it seemed unfit to force a visit to a place we had already been. But back to actually being there....

Even though I did not really know much about what I was looking at, there was a definite air of amazement while walking through the complex. It took a full hour just to walk from one end of the grounds to the other with just a little bit of time spent stopping to stare. Being there at closing time presented the great benefit of being relatively alone by the end. Sitting on some stairs in an empty courtyard and imagining who had once lived within those walls was one of those moments where things really start to sink in. I had many of these moments on this trip, but at this time in particular it really hit me. I'm in Asia. This world is so big and it's history is even bigger. It's possibly the smallest I have ever felt.

Fireworks

New Years celebrations are a totally different animal in Asia. The Lunar New Year (Chinese New Year) is spent with your family, not rowdy strangers. The streets of Beijing were relatively quite while we were there. Many of the stores and restaurants were closed the entire time.

We had no expectations for festivities except for a magnificent fireworks display. Now my only experience with fireworks is going to a city funded show where people gather to look in one direction as the explosives are set off over a body of water far from the spectators. Very regulated, very safe. No such thing in Beijing. First of all, the sound of fireworks were basically constant starting on New Year's Eve morning and lasting over 36 hours. There was no need to seek out one place to go see them because they were everywhere.

After the sun went down we decided to go walk around a lake that is known for having many restaurants and bars. Along the way we stopped at countless store fronts to watch families setting off their own fireworks. We would stop partly for safety, because they were right on the sidewalk, but mostly in awe of what was going on around us. These were not little sparklers or roman candles, these were heavy duty fireworks. We spent most of the walk slightly on edge for fear of being blown up on the side of the road. I also jumped and sometimes screeched from the startling loud crashes too many times to count. Car alarms were constantly going off. It was like walking through a war zone.

Beyond the explosives on the sidewalk, there was not that much night life to be had. Most restaurants and bars were closed for the holiday, so after a leisurely walk out in the cold we decided the best thing to do was go to bed so that we could be refreshed for our early morning trip to the Great Wall the next day. We had lights out by 11:00 pm. Then midnight rolled around....

I am a heavy sleeper. When I'm out it usually takes a very loud noise for a very extended period of time before I am aroused from my slumber. A little after midnight I awoke thinking our building was being bombed. The fireworks chaos had escalated to an extravaganza. I laid in bed for a bit just looking out the window. Then got up to really look out the window. Finally Maranda and I realized that this insanity was not dying down any time soon and threw on coats over our pjs and ventured out into the night.

It was immediately apparent why I had thought our building was under attack when I first woke up. A bunch of foreigners were right outside the hostel lighting some of the smaller firecrackers that just sound like gun shots. It was at this point that I saw the most people out on our street. It was basically the same experience we had had earlier in the night, but increased in intensity 10 fold. Yet again I stood in awe, elated by what was happening around me.

I was too much of a tourist in this moment to feel like I was a part of the festivities, but was happy to just be an observer. There was a moment that I witnessed amongst some of the other hostel patrons that really affected me for some reason. Nothing special really, just a few drunk young white British guys setting off fireworks and hanging on each other yelling happy new year, but some how that was the moment that finally made me understand the weight of this whole experience. I was in China, on New Years, witnessing a part of their culture with many other people from all around the world. It was just really cool.....

An Asian Rejuvenation

a.k.a- New Year take two

Just got back from Beijing and I can comfortably state that it was the best city bound vacation I have ever had. Every moment of the past 4 days have been wonderful, even the bad ones. It was magical because Megan, Maranda and I were not only in the same place, but the same mind set the entire time we were there. We all had very little expectations for the trip, so we were able to take things as they came and just enjoy random experiences to their full extent (and there were many of them). I have plans to flesh out some highlights here within the next couple of days...they may have to come in installments though. I have many wonderful moments to share and hundredes of pictures to post, but just wanted people to know as soon as possible that Beijing is the bomb. I am back revilaized from a great trip...just what I needed to start off the new year.

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!!!

All the peps back home can't stop talking about the blizzard and I've been nothing but jealous of all the beautiful snow they get to play in. Well this morning I woke up to big beautiful snowflakes falling from the sky. Nothing like a reminder of home to brighten up the day. =)

Korean fun fact: when it snows people walk around with umbrellas. The scene really made me wish I had my camera with me this morning.

Korean Moments and Impressions

I thought it would be interesting to collect the memories and impressions from the fam. and share them with everyone. These are direct quotes with my additional elaborations in italics.

Mom:

-I didn't realize just how much South Korea would like to be re-united with N. Korea.. as evidenced by the already built beautiful train station, and the statue of the world torn in half being pushed back together.

-I was impressed by the number of elderly people hiking in the hillsides and climbing some very steep/deep stairs along the way. They are in great shape, I didn't see any obesity while traveling around Korea.

-I can't believe i had fish munching on my feet while I was drinking wine.

-Kimchi is far more than kimchi..:).

-I expected more smoking, but was delighted to see the actual separation of smoking rooms vs nonsmoking rooms at Tom n Toms (a coffee Starbucks look alike).

-Out door shopping at Insadong was remarkable, I loved it...

-The subway system was very clean and very efficient and felt safe. Luckily Michele knew how to get around on it.

-I enjoyed the trip despite being way out of my "comfort" zone.

Dad:
-Seoul is enormous and very crowded, and the people deal with the cold weather better than we do based on the number of bicycles and scooters/motorcycles on the road.

-I was impressed with the contrasts; the modern buildings and familiar American venues vs. the temples, burial mounds, and the DMZ.

-Korean food is interesting but not my favorite, and not anything that could sustain me for a long time.

-It was fun seeing how the boys did traveling to a very foreign country.

Kyle:
-no traffic laws, and crazy cabbies (this is a reference to the well known late night cab driving rule of completely blowing through all red lights)

-basketball game with cheers, free balloons, and a visiting team fan section

-outbacks everywhere (that's Outback Steakhouse)

-the race in the subway to the green line at the transfer (there is almost always a race on the subway, no matter what line you are getting on. Thrown elbows and boding checking is also a regular experience.)

Ross:
-surprising number of people spoke English

-Seoul tower sucks (on their last night in town (New Years Day, which is a national holiday here) we tried to go to the top of the tower. It's kind of like the space needle. It's possible that we picked the busiest day of the year to go. We left without actually going up to the observitory and by the end we all hated people. People are the worst.)

-Koreans almost seem like tourists with how many pictures they take(walking around with tripods)

-sweet mountains mixed in with big city

-sadly not much warmer than Chicago

-they think kimchi is a miracle food (I totally disagree)

I had two moments that I think are also worth mentioning:
- a cabbie asked us where we were from. When I responded with "US...Chicago" he siad, "Ah, Chicago. OBAMA!"

-I was in a cab with Dad on New Years Day. We were talking, but in a lull of conversation the driver interrupted us apologetically. This is approximately what he said to Dad: “I’m sorry. I know I should not say this, but you have a very nice voice. It’s very deep and mysterious. Like Sean Connery. You must have done some very heavy drink last night.”

Oh, Korea.

Back to school, back to school

Well, the Korean lifestyle never ceases to amaze me. More specifically the Korean work lifestyle. I was warned that I should be ready to operate on a day-to-day basis and be open to last minute changes, but I think today was a new extreme.

We were told at the beginning of December that the school had decided to open more classes and get additional teachers. In order to do this they would be renovating the entire third floor, which used to be just the library, TV room, teacher's office and a few dark cell like classrooms for some of the classes taught by the other school in our building (owned by the same family that runs us). In just one week the floor was completely revamped. Now only the library looks the same. It was like walking into a totally different building this morning. Most of the teachers came in early to try and set up their space and get things together for the day. Of course most of us had copies to make and worksheets to print. Unfortunately, but not surprisingly, we walked into what can only be lovingly described as a "shit show", which is used to describe most "organized" events at Kid's College. Computers, printers and the copier were not set up yet. No clock and we couldn't hear the bell on our floor. We didn't even have chairs for our desks until about 15 mins before school started. We all just stood around twiddling our thumbs, thinking of what we could with our kids without any worksheets. Heaven forbid! To top it all off, I was told 5 mins before going down to greet my children that one student had dropped out and was already replaced by another...good thing I had already been down in the classroom setting up the name tags for their new seats...thanks for the heads up guys. I was also delighted to find that I have a new student in my elementary class. The good times just keep on coming.

Two new teachers are due to arrive at the end of the week. Apparently we will have full time classes on the third floor by the end of next week. This is going to be a major change, as we are used to peace and quite during our 10 minute breaks between classes. Soon there will be no escaping the children. We even get to share a bathroom with them...yikes!

There is one thing I can say about this whole experience. If you are in a rut or just unhappy with the situation you just have to wait a month or two, because chances are everything will be completely different....

The Johnson's Take on Korea Part 2

Well, they are gone, but not without some very memorable moments I think. Having my family here made it seem even less like being in a foreign country, if that makes any sense. It seemed like any other family vacation in the states, except when I had to order food for everyone and couldn't really do it.

One might say it was a whirlwind tour. We went around Seoul, took a train to Gyeongju and stayed over night, went hiking, saw a basketball game, lots of old stuff and lots of new stuff, but mostly Korean stuff. Good times. Over 900 pictures were taken between by two cameras. I was able to pair them down to just over 700 yesterday. And yes, all of them are posted. Enjoy!

The Johnson's Take on Korea Part 1

My family is here!!!!

So far we have had only one small disaster. I thought I booked them in a Hotel just down the street from me, but really they are across town. It's turned out OK because it's an area we want to hang out in anyway, but it is making for some early mornings for me the bros (who are staying in a co-workers apt.) to get over the to rents.

Highlights so far:
Saw the Nutcracker on Christmas Day
Randomly selected a Korean restaurant that had the whole family sitting on the floor for their first meal here. Thank god the young waiter spoke English.
Eat at California Pizza Kitchen for dinner
Went to the DMZ
Wondered around a palace in the middle of the city
Dinner "party" in my apartment

Of course hundreds of pictures are being taken. Here is one:I call it "The Johnson Family for a United Korea"

Merry Christmas!!!

Some of you have seen this already, but for those who haven't:

I now eagerly await my first phone "date" with Madge, the arrival of my family!!! and Santa Claus of course.

Enjoy your holiday!!!!

The Obligatory Work "Holiday" Party

Well, it wasn't an official "holiday" company party, but similar embarrassing shenanigans happened. The biggest difference in Korea is that the shenanigans are highly encouraged, required actually, and preplanned.

We went to a dinner party Saturday night which was for all the schools owned by our principle and her husband. Only two of approximately ten tables were filled with "whiteies", so we were already a spectacle of course. We were told when we were invited that we would be expected to represent our school by singing a song in front of everyone. The general drill is have one person sing a song and have the co-workers snapping in the background. I was the lucky elected representative for our particular group, but was assured that it wasn't a big deal. I was not so reassured, however, when my boss called me Saturday afternoon to check on what I would be singing.... I went with "Material Girl" as it's simple and a classic. It won me / us a lamp and a blender...not bad! One of our Korean staff members got second place which is $200. Because we all stood up behind her, we got half the money. Some might say that a big part of her winning was the fact that one of my fellow teachers and I went to dance right in front of the judges table (after being pushed in that direction by our boss). Who would have guess right? ;)

Most groups looked like us up there, but some were in costume and had choreography. I felt like I was at a camp talent show. Amazing.

Drama, drama, drama

So the Gingerbread Man show went off if minimal hitches. The kids were cute even when I needed to whisper their cues to them from off stage and the parents seemed content. The real highlight of this whole endeavor were the costume catalogs. Sadly, a picture of a picture is not that great, but these are still worth taking a look at:

Keep in mind that in every picture the kid on the left is a boy.




Gay Cowboy?



Soldier and Mermaid...makes sense to me.






OK, I find this one just plain creepy.


And everyone's favorite character, the cellphone. Complete with flap down front and send button on the butt.



Pictures of my kids from the show and more of the catalog are also posted now.

Saftey in the Subway

Sorry...I've been lacking in my posts again. Here is something to think about:

How would you feel seeing this in every subway station?
(I highly encourage clicking on the picture to see an enlarged version. It's worth the close up on this one.)

I like to think that Koreans are just like boy scouts....always prepared for anything. Of course, in any given subway station there are usually at least 200 people walking around and only one of these little displays. If anything were to happen it would be like being on the Titanic. Women and children first I hope....

It's probably more likely to be trampled to death in the event of an emergency then be harmed by the emergency itself. I'm actually worried about being trampled on a semi daily basis around here.

Groceries

I know this is not all that exciting, but sometimes it's the everyday stuff that is what is really interesting. This is not one of those cases....but I still want you think that it could be.

Now that I've been here for three months (92 days..yikes!) I'm already falling into a slump of a comfort zone. One effort to keep things fresh is buying one new thing every time I go to the grocery store. So far the big winner is a honey ginger tea. Sadly, I can't credit my "sense of adventure" on this find, people were drinking it at school. I still count it though. Basically it's just a jar of honey with ginger chopped up in it. You just spoon some into a cup and add hot water. Careful not to swallow the big bits of ginger! One of the Korean helper teachers also made a similar tea, but with apples. Good stuff. I'm thinking there is a little more to it then just putting the ingredient in the honey, not totally sure though. So is this a Korean thing or are people at home drinking this and I just didn't know about it?

Other winners so far: frozen won tons, candied peanuts, "cupcakes" that were more like sponge cake

Also, the grocery store that I go to most often for milk and produce is pretty small and I'm in there probably two times a week. I can't imagine what the people that work there think of me, but today when I checked out with two types of cereal the guy at the cash register told me I had too much. He was just teasing, but I'm sure he sees me as a walking stereotype...at least I didn't buy any cheese along with all my cereal!

Last "interesting" tidbit about grocery shopping: In the smaller stores you have to pay for the plastic bags to take your stuff home. You also do all the bagging yourself. And true to Korean form, there is very little concern for personal space in line. Last time I was there I was unloading the small basket I had of items and the cashier had already started to ring up my food. A guy came up with three things and stood in front of me and put his things down! He was totally aware that I was in the middle of checking out too...unbelievable.

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Yes, I know I'm more then a week early, but Kid's College doesn't really care what day Thanksgiving really is. Besides, for most of the people in my office this is over a month late.

The Thanksgiving celebration at school was really more just a place holder for the November party day. You should take into account that on months without major US holidays we have things like Pajama Day or Ladies and Gentlemen Day (more info on this when the day comes around). The celebration consisted of the kids bringing in food from different countries around the world. Let me tell you, I looked at my heaping plate of spaghetti, chips and salsa and fried chicken and couldn't help but think of home. =)

The only activity the school had planed was eating food (which is authentic enough in it's own right I guess). The only cultural info I instilled in my children is that fact that we usually eat turkey on Thanksgiving. They also made a turkey by tracing their hands on different pieces of colored paper and fanning the hands out behind a turkey body I copied out of a book. Good times.

Perhaps the most entertaining thing about the day was the fact that my class was assigened "American" food. When they came in this morning they all said "Teacher, teacher! Mi Guk food!" (Mi Guk = American) I had to teach them American. I've been telling them all this time that I'm American, but they didn't know what that was. Oops! The American food spread consisted of fried chicken, sandwiches, pizza and Egg McMuffins from McDelivery (that's right, McDonalds delivers here...classy.)

Also, the cold snap has hit here. The past two days have hovered around 32. So yes, it does get cold in South Korea, but word on the street is that is abnormal for this early in the winter season. It should hang in the low 50's a little longer. Here's hoping!!!

Ever heard of DJ Shadow?

Yeah, me either...but that didn't stop me from jumping on the band wagon to go see him last night.

I've never been to see a DJ before, and I've got to say that standing in a dark over crowded room listening to house music is not really my thing.

Highlight: He played "Handelbars" by the Flobots. The crowd responded very well to Joe's trumpet solo. =)

Happy Pepero Day!

11/11 is declared pepero day because the all the ones look like the pepero cookies (think chocolate covered pretzel rods but with a wafer or bread stick like cookie). I'm pretty sure the day was created by the Lotte franchise seeing as how they make every variety of the cookies that flooded the Mini-Stops and Seven Elevens for the past week. Many cookies were exchanged throughout the day, leaving the kids running ramped on sugar highs and teachers crashing from sugar lows.

Highlight of the day -reading the following on one of the cookie packages:
"Pepero day which is so special to declare true heart for someone is loved a lot of People."

Korea in Color

So the paper announced that the prime time for fall colors would last for exactly 15 days (October 28 through November 11). I finally got a chance to go see them in person this weekend. Kyle was also itching to take some pictures, so we made it into a picture hike.

One fun Korean anecdote*
We saw a middle aged man a little ways down the mountain side high up in a tree and small group of people standing around watching and yelling at him (in a friendly way). He was picking "Korean kiwi". Did you know there are largish berry sized kiwi out there!?! That's good stuff my friends. The people who were hanging at the top of the path wouldn't let us leave until they gave us some. Koreans can be so nice sometimes.

Obama-rama!

Witnessing such a historic event was pretty cool. Sadly, I'm pretty well stuck in an expat bubble where I only have real contact with Americans and Canadians. I am happy to report that everyone I know over here is pretty excited about the Obama victory.

It was interesting to experience election day half way across the world. While everyone at home was staying up late to watch the results, my co-workers and I all had our computers up so that we could check the counts during our break times. Of course the Americans were a little more excited about the constant updates, but I was surprised at the level of interest from the Canadians. I would say most of the Canadians in my office have a working knowledge of American politics, some more so then myself. They say they have always been aware of the candidates in our elections. It kind of makes me feel like an idiot that I have no idea who their country's leader is, let alone when their election is, or who is running.

As I said before, I haven't had a chance to really get a Korean's take on the election. However, when we were all gathered around one computer listening to Obama's acceptance speech streaming form a computer our Korean supervisor walked in. When she realized what we were listening to she said "Oh, Obama. Yay!"

There was a moment in the office on Wednesday that I don't think I will ever forget. At one point Obama said "for those huddled around radios in forgotten corners of the world" (or something like that) and we all cheered. At the same time that the election results started to sink in, I also was hit with jsut how far away I am. It gave me goose bumps just to hear his voice. It's a very exciting time. We all keep talking about how historic this is and how proud we are to be around to see it happen (Americans and Canadians alike). If I have one regret from coming to Korea, it's that it kept me from being in Grant Park on the evening of November 4, 2008. I am so jealous of all of you who were there.

Happy Halloween!

Even though Halloween is not a holiday celebrated in Korea, we celebrated it at school since it is celebrated in English speaking countries. For a country that doesn't celebrate Halloween the kids sure were able to come up with some great costumes:
I've uploaded plenty of other pictures from the big day and Thursday when we carved a pumpkin. Other events on our schedule were making faces for the adorable felt pumpkin bags shown here, face painting, trick-or-treating (which consisted of the kids walking into the hall and getting a handful of candy from a box) a hunted house in the gym (which was traumatizing for all the kids) and a magic show. Good times were had by all.

I also just posted a bunch of pictures I took with my new camera. I am very content with my purchase. =)