, or more particularly, the rationalization one does to oneself in order to reduce dissonance, is a pervasive and insidious mental bugbear. A good recent example is SC Gov Sanford reconciling the dissonance between his Christian belief that adultery is a sin (and that sinners should not be held in esteem) and his ambition / pride in being a political leader, with the comparison of himself to some biblical leader (was it Abraham, or David or ??) who is mandated to keep office despite his faults. Not all examples are so hilarious or obvious, but you should still search your own mind for instances of dissonance. I do so, but the problem is sometimes not recognizing that dissonance exists but rather determining which conclusions are genuine and which are mere rationalization.
When I was a grad student I was committed to finishing my PhD. I follow the credo of "finish what you started" and I was having a good life at the time, so there is no dissonance there, but I helped maintain my enthusiasm for math with the idea of being a career academic. Indeed, in my last year I applied for positions to continue my math career at top level post-doc/assnt prof. jobs. Was this job search the result of rebellion against the dissonance of having spent 6 years on a career path that I didn't really want to continue down for the long term? Having failed to land my dream job, and by now having had a bit of space and time to reflect on matter, I realize math was a worthwhile project, but ultimately not something I have enough passion for to do for the rest of my life. .. or is that conclusion just the result of the dissonance between my belief that I can do anything I really want yet did not get one of those top jobs?
That may remain an unsolved question, but I am fairly certain of the following: While I don't want to be a career English teacher in Korea, part of the reason I took this job was to reflect on such issues. Luckily, it's also a great place to live, and I think it would only continue to get better as I become more integrated into the culture, so I have no prejudice against coming back for another short term contract. But the job is not really challenging enough, and I can't convince myself that it is a noble or worthwhile enough endeavor to devote a significant portion of my life towards.
I struggled with different ways to express myself here, so I'll just state the plain facts for now: I've decided that to be happy a man needs to get something done, and to get something done a man needs a big picture, long term goal to devote himself to. There are several candidates for the next major worldwide crisis, I guess everyone who has the luxury of relative wealth and talent should pick one and devote himself to some long term preventative strategy. So I decided to work in the solar energy industry.
I have a decent background in materials science to start on this path, but might need additional training before I can find the position that's right for me. I've been searching for jobs to no avail these last couple months. If these trends continue after I return to America, there is a good chance my future plans will look like this - couple months jaunting around usa / SE asia; another semester teaching english in Korea; a year getting another degree at the European School of Solar Engineering in Sweden starting next August.
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Sunday, August 9, 2009
Korean Miracle
This is the term used to describe Korea's remarkable transformation from being one of the world's poorest countries for a decade after their war to being one of the "Asian Tigers" a G20 nation. These days the country is so opulent that they run air conditioners at school at full blast with the doors and windows wide open. And the kids are getting fat ..
Well, we all like to make fun of the parents and grandparents who enjoy spinning yarns about how tough it was in their day. "I had to walk to school 2 miles in the snow, up hill both ways." "Every night for dinner we had a bowl of cold gravel, and then got whipped with the belt ... if we were lucky!" My own father talks about having to have pumped water from a well. but let me share some stories from my co-teachers who grew up in the 70's in Korea. One was so cronically hungry that her parents gave her booze to fill her stomach and put her to sleep as a 10 year old, and the other remembers an annual tradition from early spring when the winter stores were spent, but the new growth wasn't harvestable. Her parents would send her out to the forest with a sharp stone to peel and eat nutritious bark from the evergreen trees.
Stories like these gave me something to think about.
Well, we all like to make fun of the parents and grandparents who enjoy spinning yarns about how tough it was in their day. "I had to walk to school 2 miles in the snow, up hill both ways." "Every night for dinner we had a bowl of cold gravel, and then got whipped with the belt ... if we were lucky!" My own father talks about having to have pumped water from a well. but let me share some stories from my co-teachers who grew up in the 70's in Korea. One was so cronically hungry that her parents gave her booze to fill her stomach and put her to sleep as a 10 year old, and the other remembers an annual tradition from early spring when the winter stores were spent, but the new growth wasn't harvestable. Her parents would send her out to the forest with a sharp stone to peel and eat nutritious bark from the evergreen trees.
Stories like these gave me something to think about.
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
Daegu pub golf
A week and a half ago I went back to Daegu for Sean's going away party. A pub crawl wasn't good enough for him, so we had to play a round of pub golf. This consists of a pre-appointed drink in each of 9 different bars. Your score is the number of strokes (or sips) it takes to finish your drink. We visited some bars with unique specialities along the way. One was "billibowl" a combination of billiards and bowling - you shoot the pool ball down the alley towards miniature pins, it's pretty fun. The only drink I had a hard time finnishing in one chug was the ice beer. This is a regular pint of beer served in a mug of solid ice. The fun part is that after you finish you can throw the mug at a wall and possibly win a free beer if you hit a target. Overall it was a fun night.
Golf Champion
Yesterday I went to Bugok Country Club to cheer on my co-teachers son as he won the province's elementary student championship. This skinny 10 year old has a swing like butter, and smoked the competition shooting 75-73 from the red tees of a championship golf course nestled into the Korean mountains. He came within inches of holing out for eagle from 100 yards on the final hole, and beat his nearest competitor by over 10 strokes. Aparently he is about #10 in the nation for his age group.
I also saw the national high school girls champion play. She had a swagger about her that did not abate even as she accepted the 2nd place trophy having been beaten out by a middle school girl playing above her league.
I also saw the national high school girls champion play. She had a swagger about her that did not abate even as she accepted the 2nd place trophy having been beaten out by a middle school girl playing above her league.
Hadong Cool Summer
Korea likes to have short English slogans for public events or press campaigns, such as the tourism board adopting "Sparkling Korea", and my home town's "Cool Summer." Somehow this July seems to have been at least 5 degrees cooler than last year, I guess because it was so much more cloudy and rainy this year. But the rainy season seems to have ended, and just in time for a little festival we had last weekend.
Events included a critical mass style tour of the town on Saturday. A pack of 125 bicycles in a town of 40,000 is not a bad ratio - I suppose it is equivalent to LA having a 5,000 member ride. That night there was a concert headlining some Korean that my students went nuts over, followed by a pretty decent fireworks display. The highlight Sunday occured in a little pond (about 100 square meters of knee deep water) they had dug into the sandy beach. They dumped about 100 3-4 pound fish in there, then we all piled in and tried to catch them with our bare hands. Other events included beach soccer tournament, and jetski pulled tube-rides.
Events included a critical mass style tour of the town on Saturday. A pack of 125 bicycles in a town of 40,000 is not a bad ratio - I suppose it is equivalent to LA having a 5,000 member ride. That night there was a concert headlining some Korean that my students went nuts over, followed by a pretty decent fireworks display. The highlight Sunday occured in a little pond (about 100 square meters of knee deep water) they had dug into the sandy beach. They dumped about 100 3-4 pound fish in there, then we all piled in and tried to catch them with our bare hands. Other events included beach soccer tournament, and jetski pulled tube-rides.
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Busan weekend
I spent last weekend in Busan.
We are in the middle of monsoon season, and it has rained each day for at least a week, and the forecast is for this trend to continue, but we decided to try for an afternoon on the beach anyway. It worked out perfectly and rained Friday night, but the next round held off until Sat night, staying nice all day Saturday as we played a little beach frisbee and swam in the still chilly ocean.
After dinner, a couple of us decided to go to the casino. I was quite surprised to find out that the casino is for foreigners / tourists only, Koreans are not allowed to gamble! The plan was to just play a little blackjack and have a few drinks before heading out. It was small stakes (5000 won = $4 a hand minimum) so although I had some bad luck, I could rationalize that I broke even with a couple mildly expensive cocktails. But my buddy busted out of blackjack and decided to play a little roulette. He fared poorly and resorted to a defensive betting strategy of increasing his bet with each loss. All of a sudden he's out of chips and talking about going to the ATM again. Well, now at least I can talk about the time I saw my friend bet more than a million on a single spin of the wheel - I put what was left of my chips ~$70 down in a solidarity bet. Basically there were three numbers out of the 37 that could hit to bust both of us, and of course 36 red came up the winner.
The rest of the night we hung out at a bar or two, and saw a street fight involving a man in underwear with a large kitchen knife. Sunday the weather was bad, so I didn't do too much before heading back home. Overall a memorable weekend.
We are in the middle of monsoon season, and it has rained each day for at least a week, and the forecast is for this trend to continue, but we decided to try for an afternoon on the beach anyway. It worked out perfectly and rained Friday night, but the next round held off until Sat night, staying nice all day Saturday as we played a little beach frisbee and swam in the still chilly ocean.
After dinner, a couple of us decided to go to the casino. I was quite surprised to find out that the casino is for foreigners / tourists only, Koreans are not allowed to gamble! The plan was to just play a little blackjack and have a few drinks before heading out. It was small stakes (5000 won = $4 a hand minimum) so although I had some bad luck, I could rationalize that I broke even with a couple mildly expensive cocktails. But my buddy busted out of blackjack and decided to play a little roulette. He fared poorly and resorted to a defensive betting strategy of increasing his bet with each loss. All of a sudden he's out of chips and talking about going to the ATM again. Well, now at least I can talk about the time I saw my friend bet more than a million on a single spin of the wheel - I put what was left of my chips ~$70 down in a solidarity bet. Basically there were three numbers out of the 37 that could hit to bust both of us, and of course 36 red came up the winner.
The rest of the night we hung out at a bar or two, and saw a street fight involving a man in underwear with a large kitchen knife. Sunday the weather was bad, so I didn't do too much before heading back home. Overall a memorable weekend.
Sunday, July 5, 2009
Daegu
Like most countries, Korea is broken into provinces for local governance; there are 9 of them. In addition, the biggest cities are (geographically small) provinces of their own. Its like if Philly seceded from Pennsylvania, but Pittsburg would not be big enough to seperate. Anyway, the cities are Seoul, Incheon, Busan, Daejeon, Ulsan, Daegu, and Gwangju. Gwangju will be the last one I get to visit, as I spent last weekend celebrating the 4th of July and checking out Sean's home city of Daegu.
The weekend was basically one long party. I arrived Friday night in time for a late dinner followed by a walking tour of the downtown bar scene. An advantage of Daegu is that it is compact. It is a large enough city (a couple million) to host a significant ex-pat community, but it is small enough that the majority of the nightlife is concentrated, in all its epileptic neon glory, to a couple city blocks of downtown real estate.
Highlights from the first night included getting a free cocktail in a bag. Seriously, the new trend there is a little kiosk on the road that sells what looks like IV bags full of mixed drinks. Being American at midnight and in the right place at the right time earned us the treat.
Aided by the holiday mood I almost treated the weekend as a vacation from Korea. I ate almost exclusively American foods: hamburger and french fries, bbq ribs, eggs & bacon with biscuits and homestyle gravy, even some apple pie although it was served in a cup and a little over cinnamoned. One misguided Korean friend, having heard that it was a traditional holiday beverage, showed up to the bbq party with a can of eggnogg!
Saturday we got brunch at an America style cafe just outside of a US army base then went shopping for fireworks. We eventually found them right where I predicted: in a children's toy shop. Quick language note: the Korean word for fireworks literally translated is a compound word "fire-flower-play" this is an example of a playfull simplicity to the language. Others include fish="water-meat" watch="hand-neck-time-thing", key="open-easy"
In the mid-afternoon we went to a bbq on the roof party. It was a pleasant day for it and really a fun party. The sky had some threatening clouds, but the weather held out long enough to appreciate the rooftop a little, and get some grilling accomplished. They even had a kiddie pool which gave us the highlight of watching our host climb a tree and shake the branches when a girls dress got blown off the roof. It did start to rain after we had been there a little while, but this may have been a blessing in disguise as it broke the party up into a pair of apartments and the foyer at the top of the stairwell. It is always nice to have different rooms with different moods to wander between - basically there was a singing room, a drinking room, and a place to chat.
When the first party ended (i.e. ran out of booze) We stopped briefly at a different rooftop party to pick up a girl to talk to and a bottle of soju to drink for the cab ride downtown. I had a good time that night. Met a lot of cool foreigners (a surprising number of them English, Irish, and Scottish), and when I was talking to the natives my Korean was in rare form, bolstered as it was by the confidance imbued by alcohol and flirtatious girls.
Sunday Sean and I were a little hungover, but a good way to cure that is to go have lunch at a cafe with outdoor tables where you can watch the human traffic in the park. Walking around, we had a little time to kill before his language exchange and my bus back home, so we went to a rather unusual place. It was a cafe with a $3.50 cover charge that got you access to the self serve bar that had coffee, iced green tea, and some breads. It was a library cafe: tons of books on shelves scattered throughout the place. All Korean as far as I saw. The gimic was that for two bucks extra you could dip your feet into a fishbowl, and the little guys would nibble the dead skin and calluses off your toes. It was ticklish and bizzarre.
I slept on the bus ride back home.
The weekend was basically one long party. I arrived Friday night in time for a late dinner followed by a walking tour of the downtown bar scene. An advantage of Daegu is that it is compact. It is a large enough city (a couple million) to host a significant ex-pat community, but it is small enough that the majority of the nightlife is concentrated, in all its epileptic neon glory, to a couple city blocks of downtown real estate.
Highlights from the first night included getting a free cocktail in a bag. Seriously, the new trend there is a little kiosk on the road that sells what looks like IV bags full of mixed drinks. Being American at midnight and in the right place at the right time earned us the treat.
Aided by the holiday mood I almost treated the weekend as a vacation from Korea. I ate almost exclusively American foods: hamburger and french fries, bbq ribs, eggs & bacon with biscuits and homestyle gravy, even some apple pie although it was served in a cup and a little over cinnamoned. One misguided Korean friend, having heard that it was a traditional holiday beverage, showed up to the bbq party with a can of eggnogg!
Saturday we got brunch at an America style cafe just outside of a US army base then went shopping for fireworks. We eventually found them right where I predicted: in a children's toy shop. Quick language note: the Korean word for fireworks literally translated is a compound word "fire-flower-play" this is an example of a playfull simplicity to the language. Others include fish="water-meat" watch="hand-neck-time-thing", key="open-easy"
In the mid-afternoon we went to a bbq on the roof party. It was a pleasant day for it and really a fun party. The sky had some threatening clouds, but the weather held out long enough to appreciate the rooftop a little, and get some grilling accomplished. They even had a kiddie pool which gave us the highlight of watching our host climb a tree and shake the branches when a girls dress got blown off the roof. It did start to rain after we had been there a little while, but this may have been a blessing in disguise as it broke the party up into a pair of apartments and the foyer at the top of the stairwell. It is always nice to have different rooms with different moods to wander between - basically there was a singing room, a drinking room, and a place to chat.
When the first party ended (i.e. ran out of booze) We stopped briefly at a different rooftop party to pick up a girl to talk to and a bottle of soju to drink for the cab ride downtown. I had a good time that night. Met a lot of cool foreigners (a surprising number of them English, Irish, and Scottish), and when I was talking to the natives my Korean was in rare form, bolstered as it was by the confidance imbued by alcohol and flirtatious girls.
Sunday Sean and I were a little hungover, but a good way to cure that is to go have lunch at a cafe with outdoor tables where you can watch the human traffic in the park. Walking around, we had a little time to kill before his language exchange and my bus back home, so we went to a rather unusual place. It was a cafe with a $3.50 cover charge that got you access to the self serve bar that had coffee, iced green tea, and some breads. It was a library cafe: tons of books on shelves scattered throughout the place. All Korean as far as I saw. The gimic was that for two bucks extra you could dip your feet into a fishbowl, and the little guys would nibble the dead skin and calluses off your toes. It was ticklish and bizzarre.
I slept on the bus ride back home.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)