Incheon Global Fair & Festival

Yesterday I got roped into attending a festival in Incheon with Vicky and one of her coworkers. I say “roped into” because it was in Incheon, and there’s really no reason to go there unless you are headed to the airport. (Sorry Incheonites, but it’s the truth) I went though, because A. I'm a good friend, and B. I wanted to play with my new camera.

It took us several hours to get there because of transportation mishaps. This is my second visit to Incheon and both times, it has taken a ridiculously long time by bus due to horrendous traffic. If you’re ever Incheon-bound (again, not to the airport) then it’s actually faster to take the subway.

The entrance to the festival was a good example of how freaked out Koreans are about the whole swine-flu thing. We waited in line first to be spritzed with hand sanitizer, and then to pass through the so-called “Flugun” gates where a machine doused us in some kind of germ-fighting mist.
A tad extreme, but I didn’t mind at all. As far as I’m concerned, the whole H1N1 scare has been a blessing in disguise. In the last month or so, hand-sanitizing stations have popped up everywhere; at my school, in office buildings, etc. I think it’s great, because most public restroom faucets are either lacking hot water, or instead of a soap dispenser, there is a bar of soap attached to the sink that everyone is supposed to share!!! Ish. Cold water does not kill germs, and that bar of soap has everyone's bathroom hand-germs on it! I try to have hand sanitizer on me at all times in Korea, but these days, thanks to H1N1, I don't need to pack my own because it's everywhere.

Hand sanitizer stations at Chungdam H.S.

Along with hand sanitizer stations, Koreans are now practicing such germ-fighting techniques as covering their mouths when they cough or sneeze! Amazing! Hopefully this trend will last beyond the H1N1 hoopla. Oh, also those medical masks that are ubiquitous in this country anyway, have doubled in wearage.

But they still hock loogies all over the streets (and stairs at my school). I don’t know if that will ever go away, despite my giving death-looks to every ajushi who does so in my presence.

-End Rant-

Back to the festival. I think the point of it was to highlight Incheon's plans to become "the city of the future," but I was more interested in the "International" stuff. My favorite was the “World Cultures Street” where they had food, shops, and exhibits from around the world. We browsed a Moroccan bazaar, ate Turkish ice cream, drank French wine and saw Brazilian Carnival dancers all without leaving Korea. It really made me want to travel; everywhere. Unfortunately, like the rest of the general population, I have limited vacation time and funds. Most of my vacation days for this contract are already shot because of the trip home for my sister’s wedding, but I do hope to squeeze some trips in this Spring before I go to Japan. (Topping the wish list are India and Nepal and/or Vietnam)

It was also really humorous to see the Teddy Bear Museum, where they had teddy bears depicting highly stereotypical scenes from different countries. A few examples:

Germany = teddy bears in lederhosen drinking beer

New Zealand = teddy bears acting out a battle from "Lord of the Rings"

The United States = teddy bears dressed as cowboys fighting Indians

Sweden = teddy bears dressed as Vikings. (No mention of Norway; my ancestors are now rolling in their graves)

Central and South America were lumped together as one unit, represented by teddy bears acting out a soccer game between Brazil and Argentina, with Mayan and Aztec ruins as a backdrop. Hmm...wonder how they would feel about that.

I guess it's no different from people in the Western Hemisphere thinking Korea, Japan and China are basically the same. And...they were teddy bears.

Here are a few pictures. I really need to figure out how to use my fancy new camera, because there are so many cool functions and I only know how to use Auto and Landscape mode. Where is Dan Thai when you need him?


The Incheon of the Future (really I just wanted a pic of the little girl in the swine-flu mask)

Brazilian Carnival dancers scandalizing a Korean man (although he didn't seem to mind)

Teddy Bear Pope

Lazer/Fireworks show. Incheon..."Lightening Tomorrow!"

Warp speed

(Written 10-4-09)

Maybe I'm just getting old, but life seems to be moving at warp speed these days. Whenever I sit down to write a blog, there are far too many things that have happened and I end up doing a lot of omitting and summarizing.

I am back home in Minnesota for my sister's wedding, and it seems like I was just here yesterday. In the six weeks that I've been back in Korea since the last home visit, I've given two teacher-training presentations for S.M.O.E., made two T.V. appearances, resumed Korean lessons, started taekwondo classes, and participated in a "Mass Freeze" at COEX with Vicky. I thought that when the majority of my friends left in August, things would sort of settle down, but that hasn't been the case at all. I like being busy, but I think I'm putting too much on my plate these days.

As for the wedding, it was kind of a blur; I flew in Wednesday night, ran errands all day Thursday, Thursday night was the rehearsal dinner, then I woke up Friday morning to the hair and make up lady arriving at our house to beautify the bride and bridesmaids.

The ceremony itself was beautiful; I told my sister that she did a great job of choosing the music, flowers, etc., and I wasn't even there to boss her around! (I am kind of a know-it-all big sister) I think the highlight of the wedding for me might have been at the reception, when my mother, aunt, and their childhood friend wanted me to teach them some new dance moves during "Ice, Ice, Baby."

It was a crazy weekend and it went by way too fast, but it was really good to see everyone. I spent a lot of time at the reception answering questions about Korea. I realized people really don't know very much about it. One of my cousins asked how life was in "Tokyo." I said, "I live in Seoul...Korea." He's like, "Oh, they're all the same to me." He was half-joking, but it is true that aside from Japan and maybe China, people don't really pay attention to this part of the world, and I was more than happy to fill them in.

Some of the common questions I was asked:

"Do they eat kimchi for every meal?" Yes, but kimchi is a side dish, not the main part of the meal.
"Is the education system better?" Yes and no...the students are more motivated and take their education seriously, but the focus is on test scores rather than learning for learning sake.
"Are you like a minority over there?" Yes, totally.
"Do you like it?" Love it.

It made me grateful that I took the plunge and moved to Korea over a year ago; otherwise my knowledge of Korea would have been confined to KIA and Kim-Jong Il.

Also, on Thursday I purchased (or financed, I should say) my first DSLR (Digital Single Lens Reflex) camera! I've been wanting one forever, and my sister's wedding seemed like a good excuse to get it. I'll be paying it off for the next year or so, but it takes fantastic pictures and I think it was definitely worth it.

Testing out the new camera before the Rehearsal Dinner

St. Ambrose of Woodbury (where the ceremony was held the next day)

My sisters, after hair & make up

The bride just before the ceremony

My mom, aunt, and Kathy rocking out at the reception

My little bros looked so handsome :)

One of my favorite pictures; me & Nat with our new brother-in-law :)

Grammar FAIL

(Written 9-24-09)

It's almost time for midterms, and that means I have been bombarded with nit-picky grammar questions all week. It's lots of fun...not.

I feel like a fraud as the resident English "expert" at these times, because for most of the questions I can't explain my reasoning, I just know what is right or wrong or what sounds awkward in English.

One teacher sent me the following message. I think I have a pretty good handle on English grammar until I read something like this:

The pair of sentences illustrates two different patterns which a group of English verbs allows. This pattern is often referred to as "dative shift" because it involves an alternation in the marking of the recipient or indirect object argument.

(1) a. John gave a beautiful ring to his daughter.

b. John gave his daughter a beautiful ring.

It is generally assumed that (1b), called the 'double object construction', This is why we call the alternation between (1a) and (1b) 'dative shift', However, it is not the case that all VPs with the form of [Verb + NP + to +NP ] can undergo the dative shit and give rise to the corresponding double object construction, [Verb + NP + NP]

Uhhh...what???

At the bottom of the message, there were 10 sentences and I was supposed to choose which ones had undergone the "dative shift." Now, it looks pretty obvious in the above example, but the sentences all seemed to be the same in construction. I wrote the teacher back saying so, and that I had never even heard of a "dative shift," and I was sorry I couldn't be of more help.

This happens all too often. Mostly, the Korean English teachers know more about English grammar than I do.

Details in the Fabric

Because sometimes Jason Mraz can say it better than I can.

9-22-09

I wish I could channel my energies into something more productive or lucrative or good for humanity or something, but I like spending a lot of time on useless things.

Lately it's learning and translating songs from Korean and Portuguese to English so I can sing a long with them (and know what the words mean). I guess it's not completely useless, and it's actually been a really good way to study the two languages, but there are a lot of other things I could be doing with my life (i.e. Taking care of things before I go home again for my sister's wedding next weekend, finshing my TEFL paper...yes, I'm still procrastinating on that, and preparing for my upcoming S.M.O.E. presentation). But being able to sing along to the chorus of 2NE1's "I don't care" is a lot more fun.

Here's the Korean song I'm working on:



Chorus in Korean:

I don’t care 그만할래 니가 어디에서 뭘 하던
이제 정말 상관 안할게 비켜줄래
이제와 울고불고 매달리지마
cause don’t care e e e e e e
cause don’t care e e e e e e
Boy, I don't care

Chorus in English:

I don’t care, I’ll stop caring about what you’re doing wherever you are
From now on I really don’t care, I’ll get out of the way
From now on don’t come to me and cry, and cling on
cause I don’t care e e e e e e
cause I don’t care e e e e e e
Boy, I don't care


As for Portuguese, I've been listening to Ana Carolina a lot lately, and I'm trying to learn two of her songs; "Mais que isso" ("More than that") and "É isso aí" (Not sure how to translate that one) I thought it was a man singing at first, but she just has a very deep, husky voice. Even if I don't end up moving to Brazil, speaking/singing in Portuguese is super fun; lots of crazy vowel sounds.

"Mais que Isso"

Lyrics:
Eu não vou gostar de você porque sua cara é bonita
O amor é mais que isso
O amor talvez seja uma música que eu gostei e botei numa fita
Eu não vou gostar de você porque você acredita
O amor é mais que isso
O amor talvez seja uma coisa que até nem sei se precisa ser dita

Deixa de tolice, veja que eu estou aqui agora
inteiro, intenso, eterno, pronto pro momento e você cobra
Deixa de bobagem, é claro, certo e belo como eu quero
O corpo, a alma, a calma, o sonho, o gozo, a dor e agora pára

Será que é tão difícil aceitar o amor como é
E deixar que ele vá e nos leve pra todo lugar
Como aqui

Será melhor deixar essa nuvem passar
E você vai saber de onde vim, aonde vou
E que eu estou aqui


I've only just started studying Portuguese, but basically the singer is reassuring her 'amor' that her love is true.

É isso aí is a really pretty song too. She sings this one with Seu Jorge, another big name in Brazilian music.

G-Dragon goes solo, Jae Bum's exodus, & Asia Song Fest '09

My K-pop obsession seems to have reached new heights. When I came back from 3 weeks off of teaching, (2 weeks home visit + 1 week for 'Quarantine' purposes) I promptly asked my students what I had missed in the world of K-pop. Because, a lot can happen in 3 weeks; the entertainment companies are cranking out new groups and new singles everyday.

The girls immediately directed me to 'Heartbreaker,' the new single from the now blonde and increasingly feminine-looking G-Dragon (of Big Bang fame, of course). I wasn't too impressed at first, but the song is really growing on me. It has a great baseline...probably because it's an exact copy of Flo Rida's 'Right Round.' I've always thought that a lot of K-pop songs sound like re-packaged versions of American pop songs, but this is the most obvious to date and he's actually in the midst of a lawsuit because it. Plagiarism and piracy is a huge problem in this country (and most of Asia) so it wouldn't be a bad thing, in my opinion, if they started to enforce copyright laws here.

Lawsuit aside, it's a great track for the T-mill at the gym. Check it out:


The other big news in K-pop right now is Jae Bum's departure from 2PM. 2 PM is one of several 9-13 member, same-gender pop groups that are big right now. You would think having that many members is excessive, but watch the dancing in Super Junior's 'Sorry' video, and become a believer, as I have.

Anyway, last week one of my students rushed into my classroom in a panic and begged to use my computer. Since it was clearly an emergency, I let her, and the tragic, shocking news was confirmed: Park Jae Bum, the leading member of 2PM, was leaving the group and moving back to the U.S. I don't know the full story on this one, but apparently he wrote some not-so-nice things about Korea on his Myspace page two years back, and the record company thought it would be best if he left. Middle and high school girls across the country were devastated. I mean, what are they are going to do with only 8 members! You think I'm exaggerating, as I have a tendency to do, but there were clips on the news of hundreds of girls dressed in black with signs that said "Let Jae Bum come back!" If I can find any pictures, I'll post them. It's madness.

Last but not least, I attended my first ever K-pop concert this past Saturday. A friend of mine, knowing of my obsession, told me about a FREE concert where 2NE1, Girls Generation, Super Junior AND Big Bang would be playing. It sounded to good to be true. So Vicky (another K-pop aficionado) and I downloaded our free tickets and headed over to World Cup Stadium for the 6th Annual Asia Song Festival. The crowd was mostly families and middle school girls, and Vicky and I screamed just as loud as they did, if not more. [I'm feeling more and more losery as I write this...]

Along with the best of K-pop, they had artists from Vietnam, Japan, China, Indonesia, Taiwan and a chic from Ukraine who made Britney Spears look classy. I don't know how representative of Asian pop this concert was, but K-pop is definitely at the top of the scene. J-pop is stuck in the 80's and Chinese pop is just...bad. The girl from Indonesia was quite talented but she kept shouting commands at the audience ("stomp! no...like this!") who didn't understand her because she was speaking in English. Doesn't she now they just read and write English in Korea, not speak it? Vicky pointed out that it reminded her of her classes: a sea of blank faces staring back at you when you give directions.

Although Big Bang was my main motivation to go, it was Super Junior who stole the show. Big Bang played a really short set because they were missing a member (I found out Monday from my students that Dae Sun was in a car accident and injured his nose) and G-Dragon had another gig to play, so they dashed off after two songs. I still want to see a full-on Big Bang concert before I leave the country because I definitely didn't get my fix.

But like I said, Super Junior 'brought it,' with three hit songs, including the showstopper 'Sorry, Sorry.' I screamed so loud that my throat was sore the next day. Sadly I really am a middle school girl at heart. The weird thing was, Vicky and I jumped up and started dancing along, only to realize everyone around us was still seated. Apparently in Korea you don't stand up and dance along at concerts, you just wave your glow stick around.

A few pics:

We were NOT close to the stage at all

We <3 K-pop!

Girls Generation

Alright, I feel like I need to go and do something intellectual or at least semi-productive now.

Revelations

My first few days back home were disorienting. I was wondering if I would experience a kind of reverse culture shock, like I did when I came back from studying abroad in France 6 years ago, and I definitely did.

I’m actually amazed by how acclimated to Korea I’ve become in just one year. Things that were normal to me for 25 years seemed strange and foreign, at least for the first few days.

I felt giddy when I got off the plane at Chicago O’Hare, being on U.S. soil for the first time in a year, and when I got to the counter at immigration, my first inclination was to give a slight bow and say “Annyang Haseyo,” the polite, friendly greeting that is custom here in Korea. When it dawned on me that I didn’t have to do that, I smiled and uttered a cheerful “Hi!” instead. The guy checking my passport didn’t even respond; he gave me my stamp and shooed me on my way. At that moment I was like, oh yeah… people here aren’t all polite and formal all the time. No one is going to bow to me!

Bowing is something I’ve come to appreciate about Korean culture. When I get to school in the morning, many of my coworkers and students give a slight bow when saying hello, and to the adults, I give a slight bow back. It’s a nice form of acknowledgement, and it’s definitely something I will miss when I leave this country.

Another thing I noticed right away was a case of beverages for sale at the airport. Not only was the selection dizzying compared to Korea, but the bottles of Pepsi, Mountain Dew, etc. were at least twice as big as they are in Korea. Everything seemed big; the people, the airport, the open SPACE between buildings. My friend Matt and I were on the same flight from Seoul, and while waiting for our flight to Minneapolis, we were laughing and joking about how Korean we’ve become. Like when I got up to buy a Diet Coke, and I automatically placed my right hand on my left arm when handing over the money, another customary sign of respect in Korea. Actually, I couldn’t shake that habit the whole time I was home. We were so absorbed in such observations that we missed the boarding call for our connecting flight, but luckily we were able to jump on a flight that left an hour later.

But perhaps the most disorientating moment was visiting the shampoo aisle in Target a few days later. Two giant aisles chocked full of every sort of hair product you could imagine. I just stood there like an idiot for few minutes trying to compose myself; I didn’t know where to begin. In Korea, the shampoo aisle is a fraction of the size, with only a few brands of products to choose from. It makes the decision process a lot simpler. The same thing happened in Express; I hadn’t been surrounded by that many pairs of jeans that would fit me, in that many styles and colors, in a year, and I was overwhelmed. The array of choice we have in the United States is mind-boggling after a year in the Far East.

Another revelation occurred when my mom asked me what kind of food I wanted while I was home, since she was going grocery shopping. I thought about it for a moment, and the two things I really wanted were nangmyeon and Indian food, two things I eat regularly in Seoul. Two things I had never really eaten before I moved here. I realized that America, or Minnesota anyway, hadn’t changed at all. Everything was exactly the same as when I left, but that I had changed. My tastes have changed, my lifestyle, my way of thinking, etc. I guess I should have expected that, but it really hit me those first few days at home; how much I've experienced and grown and changed in the past year.

Lately I’ve been fantasizing about volunteering in India or Africa or Rio de Janeiro after my current contract. I subscribe to a few teach/study abroad e-mail newsletters, and I spend a little too much time at work entertaining the possibilities of my next step. It’s strange, because I used to panic about not knowing what lie ahead, but now it’s kind of exciting not knowing where on the planet I will be next spring.

I think going home gave me a renewed sense that Minnesota will always be there. I can always go back home and figure life out from there. But I won’t always be able to be nomadic like this, and I feel like I need to milk it while I can.

Loyal readers of my blog (Love you, Nat!) may notice that this is a running theme in my posts, and maybe I'm being a little bit redundant. But when all my friends back home are getting engaged, buying houses and dogs and doing other grown up things, it's hard to not feel like maybe I'm being crazy, and maybe it's time to follow suit. Deep down I know I'm not ready for that, but it helps to be reminded occasionally that there is no rush to "settle down."