November Update

Hey Everyone,

I apologize about the mass email but my blog is shot to shit and I'm behind on a lot of emails.

So I'm nearing the 9 month mark here in Korea and as of right now I'm still unsure of what is going on next. I'm planning on going to Thailand and Vietnam for most of February and March if money allows. After that it's pretty much up in the air. I've considered doing a second year in Korea but I'm also thinking of other locales. In the running are Japan or Europe (Spain, Greece, Italy, Czech Republic) and Taiwan pretty much in that order. Europe is probably my top preference but it's difficult to find work there mainly for visa reasons. As for when I'll be back in the States, I really can't say right now. The soonest would possibly be the end of March or April but I've also thought about forgoing a trip back home entirely if it were to mean I could get the right job in the right place and my family would not disown me.

As far as life here. The job has mellowed and I feel much better there most of the time. In some regards I feel like I've become a good teacher, in others I feel merely adequate. I struggle with discipline in larger classes but what teacher doesn't? In general there is less stress at work even though I'm working a little more than I was earlier on.

I feel like most of the time I'm getting out of the house less and less. It's still difficult at times to find things to do. Although I'm sitting in a coffee shop with atrocious music and worse coffee, here there are not the hang outs or options like back home. I had a dream I was at Emo's sweating obnoxiously watching a band play its heart out in that beautiful sweaty steam-pit of a venue. Alas, no options for that here. It's been so long since I've written about what has happened here I'm not sure where to start, then I think maybe there is not that much to talk about.

I still like I haven't put my finger on the culture here. Lately what has been annoying me here, and I don't know if it is the entire culture or just the few people I know, how little curiosity there is. That doesn't sound right. I mean, we can talk about world issues and such, but I find little intrigue about my life, or about the things I feel are important about me that help build relationships. In the same vein, I find a lot of questions I might ask are averted with curt answers or that the question is simply treated as unimportant. It's hard for me even to think of specific examples of the latter but sometimes I feel like I reach a wall with some Koreans very early on that reduces how well I could know them. It feels as if I don't know much more about people I met 6 months ago than I do now. And we Americans, or westerners tend to be open, often too open, I realize that, so who knows. I just sometimes wonder if it's the same between Koreans. Friendships here are largely a result of situation (age, school, workplace) and I wonder if how it is the same between them. I see them laughing, arguing, crying, just like we do. And I have those moments as well, but often personal questions are inconsequential facts about life, "how old were you when.." "what did you do after college..." but seldom more emotive or analytical questions. I mean really, who gives a shit about when something happens half the time if you don't flesh out the fact with the details and feelings about it that make it important (or not)?

On a different note, my boss took us all on a little trip this weekend and that was nice. I've really not gotten out and seen a lot of this country which is largely my fault but also a result of not having that much time off. I simply don't like to travel that much if I have only two days and have to travel both. We went to Gyeongju , the historical capital of Korea. It was really beautiful even if at times it felt a little rushed. This country has true seasons and right now all the areas outside of the cities are picture postcards. The mountains, of which this country is covered by, are all gently finding their place in fall and the colors or so rich that you would find yourself unable to turn away of something equally amazing wasn't sitting next to whatever you happen to be gazing at. I spent a lot of the time in the back of the car digesting the scenery of which there is nothing in Texas to compare. Every other mile there is land that has been cultivated, largely for rice, of which we're in the latter stages of harvest. They draw these gorgeous organic but linear, patterns in the carved out valleys and mountains sides. The trees don't have the height of a place like the NW US, but the variation of the foliage and the colors leaves you enamored. Then, when you slow down enough, you can often make out the top of one of the temples hiding in a mountain or less obviously, the mounds and tomb markers nestled beneath the trees. Those with money and property, are still buried in the traditional method which is similar to us but instead of digging a hole, the body is (I think in a coffin type box) laid on the ground and then piled upwards with stones and then dirt where grass is allowed to grow. They really are quite beautiful in how the mounds don't disrupt the nature at all but instead blend in and the trees act like a protector over the tomb. Ancient kings and figures of power were buried in the same way but on a much grander scale. We got to tour the area where dozens of these tombs were but here they reached up to 12 meters or more. This is area is a much different experience in how you have many of these tombs in varying height in the same area, probably a square mile or so (I'm really bad at gauging size on that scale). This burial area lies in a valley so the mountains are on the perimeter and there are pathways that wind around the separate tombs. This was probably site that has most affected me and I hope to return when the area is under a blanket of snow.

We went to other areas. Amongst many temples, we also saw the oldest observatory in Asia (and I was told also the world) which I think goes back to 647. The Buddhist temples are among the most popular and famous tourist spots. The thing is for me, once you've been to a few they get slightly redundant. Secondly, many were destroyed during the Japanese occupation along with other historical sites and have since been rebuilt. It's understandable that they rebuilt these structures as there would simply be very few left if they did not, but it takes away a tiny bit. The Japanese were ruthless during their reins of Korea and still are the reasons for a lot of resentment and sometimes conflictive relationship. Were a lot of these structures do excel is once again in their integration with their environment. Buddhism, the little I know about it, holds nature equal with man and the architecture usually illustrates amazingly. Unlike some of our structures (which are modern in comparison and don't make for a good comparison in truth) the roofs blend in with the mountain they rest on. They don't stand and dominate a landscape like Grecian and western historical sites tend to do (and consequently ours). The decorative painting, while sometimes loud, uses colors produced from all the seasons and is usually muted by its placement beneath the roof and obvious once you are closer to the building. But enough about that. The temples really are beautiful and usually still in use which adds to the experience.

I'm looking over what I read, and even though I have more to say, I feel I've probably lost the majority of my audience so I'll stop now. I'll try to send these semi-regularly now since my Blog seems as it will not be resurrected. I do want to talk about the little old women, with the 80 year old smokers voice, out-drinking everyone else who ran the pension or Min-Bak we stayed at, but I'll save it for another email.

About the pictures. There is one old one from the spring of a temple here in my city and the rest are from the past week. We had a Halloween party at the school. I was in charge of the Haunted House and they didn't get any pictures of that on this camera (nor me). The rest are from this past weekend but unfortunately my friend's camera didn't really get the best shots. I'm hoping to buy a camera in the next month so hopefully I'll have some more picts soon.

Please, people write me!! Even though I'm not coming back for a while, and I'm often bad about quick responses, I still want to hear what is going on in everyones life.

One day to the election, let's all pray to our selected gods, oh, and vote.

-c.




~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 And this kid's playing guns in the street
 And one's pointing his tree branch at me
 So I put my hands up, I say "Enough is enough.
 If you walk away, I'll walk away."
 And he shot me dead
                        -Bright Eyes
                        "One Foot in Front of the Other"