Frisbee Season

One very pleasant surprise from last year, and source of anticipation for my return, was the ultimate frisbee scene in Korea. You've read here about some of the big international and smaller local ones I took part in last year; this year the schedule is just as packed and the level of excitement among the players in the country seems even higher. Indeed, a couple of the more dedicated players have set up google groups and organized practices with the ultimate goal of peaking for the Shanghai tourney in early June.

This fits in nicely with my own priorities. Approaching 30 years old, I'm starting to have the existential crisis of wondering if I am too old to ever again be in the best shape of my life. At 25 I could ride my bike 100 miles from the ocean to the peak on Mt Arrowhead without and special planning, but last year I had to quit running 22 miles into a marathon! Actually, more important than the extra motivation to get into top form, I'm just happy to be able to play some competitive ultimate on a regular basis.

Now that I live only a couple hours (and less than $10 by bus) from Seoul, I can, and will, go up there any weekend that I don't have anything better to do, and there will be a high level, high intensity frisbee practice or pickup game waiting for me. I tried this out last week. From my apartment - 5 min walk to bus station, 10 minute wait for bus, 2 1/2 hour ride, 20 min subway - to the field was really not bad at all. It was a cold day and the tundra was frozen, but I got a warm feeling from seeing some friends who I hadn't seen since August, and we were sprinting around to stay warm besides.

Afterwards we went out for a very tasty, but not very filling Indian dinner. Here we also got a taste of this strange modern world. During the conversation a scene from Conan the Barbarian came up: "What is best in life?" asked a warlord. "The open steppe, a swift horse beneath you, and a falcon on your arm," answered one warrior. "Yes, that is good, but what is best?" Conan knew the answer: "To crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentations of their women!" Not a minute after we orally relived this great scene, 'Dre had found it on his iphone wifi, plugged in a phone size projector, and there it was, in true crisp color and sound projected on the restaurant wall.

I should be up there again right now, but this weekend is Lunar new year and there are 36 million cars on the road in Korea. The 2 hour drive is expected to take 7 today, and it is snowing anyway. So I'm staying home and will explore some more Jeonju instead.

First Impressions: Living Situation

Jeonju, a city of about 600,000, is fairly close to the west coast (maybe a good day trip on the bike), about halfway up. This puts me about two and half hours south of Seoul, and less than two hours to Daejeon, so weekend trips should be even easier this year.

I haven't explored Jeonju extensively yet. I'm living on the grounds of Jeonju university. There are about 11,000 regular students, but it is still recess so the campus is not bustling yet. It's a nice enough campus, plenty of fields and picnic tables scattered around, but it is on the outskirts of town. Apparently, the area around is in the process of being rapidly built up, but there is still a buffer zone of a kilometer or so where there is not much happening. But I hear lots of good things about the city proper so I'm looking forward to getting a bike and checking it out.

My apartment is in the university 'guest house,' and a lot of my fellow teachers live here as well. It's condition is a pleasant surprise. Very modern and clean looking and nicely appointed. The bathroom is a dramatic improvement over last year including a giant shower head built for circus elephants. The kitchen area is smaller, with just a mini fridge, but there are some full size fridges and a big dinning table in a common room. I've also got a nice and private little patio, tall ceilings, good heating and insulation, and AC for the summer. Maybe I'll throw some pictures on the web some day.

Best part: no bugs!

worst part: I miss my spider friends

First Impressions: The Job (edit)

My new job is at a small and fairly new private high school. To be specific, the school is entering the second half of it's 4th year, and its second year being accredited by US curriculum standards. The school is strictly Western style, i.e. all classes are in English, and we can wear our shoes indoors. There are about 40 students over the four years, skewed a little to the younger side. Almost all of them are Korean born and raised, but with at least some international travel, and enough English skills to pass the entrance exam. Actually the students don't arrive until next week; I've heard nothing but good things from the other teachers, so I am quite anxious to meet them.

I will teach Algebra, Pre-calc, and Chemistry. Apparently, I'm replacing a math teacher whose contract was not re-newed due to 'lack of passion'. There is a second new teacher - an English teacher left for a government job - but the other new guy is stuck in Vancouver waiting for the Korean embassy to process his visa! The rest of the staff is small enough that I shall mention each of them.

J__, J____ - is the administrator. The school is a project of Jeonju University, and Mr. Jeon is our conduit to the upper powers, as well as handling the business side of our school. He's a nice guy, picked me up from the bus stop when I arrived and took me shopping. His English is about equal to the better of the English teachers I worked with last year.

The only things I can say against him is to relate a story which indicates that he may suffer from a characteristically Korean brand of irrational stubbornness.

Apparently the school awards 50% scholarship to the top student of each grade. Well, there was a mixup in the grades last semester and the scholarship was awarded to the wrong student. The top student pursued the investigation and discovered the error. She and her mom were upset and considering switching schools. Now, ours is a growing school, we need our top students and the reputation they will bring us by gaining admittance to top quality colleges. Doesn't it seem obvious that the correct action is to immediately apologize for the mistake and offer the student the same scholarship? Instead Jason simply apologized, then after they said there were changing schools he offered a scholarship of lesser value. It was already too late. From what I've heard of this student it was a sad loss.

B____, J__ - teaches math, computers, and econ. He's friendly and sincere and looks a little like Kevin Nealon. I ran into him on the afternoon I arrived here, and his family invited me to join in their trip to a museum, mountain park, and dinner. He also has a super cute nine month old baby.

D_____, A_____ - teaches music, and, begrudgingly, health (you'll find out why later). She's enthusiastic and energetic. She's into bicycles, so I'll have a friend to help me shop and ride around with. Also, her roommate used to live in Daejeon and play frisbee with my friends out there.

B___, S_____ - Teaches history. Like the rest, she seems a very dedicated and passionate teacher. The other teachers say that although her classes are perhaps the toughest, the students seem to like her the best. That's a difficult balancing act, although as I recall a certain Mr. Thomas pulled the same trick during my high school days.

Y__, J___ - Another math teacher. She's a little quiet, but very helpful for all the questions I have. She also runs a public service venture with a local orphanage that the students can help out with.

H____, B_____ - Art teacher. She seems sweet, is there a dark side lurking? A lot of the students' art work is hanging on walls, or lying around the school building, and some of it is actually quite impressive.

A___, T__ - English teacher and principal. This middle aged Texan is the elephant in the room. He started just last semester, taking over from a very well liked principal. My first impression of this guy is that he is probably a pretty good ESL teacher, but is, to put it nicely, heavy handed as a manager. The counts against him: 1. He makes scheduling decisions that seem at best arbitrary, and at worst demonstrably flawed. 2. He requires a level of paperwork that yields a false precision and is one of the bureaucratic hallmarks of a narrow mind. 3. When questioned, he can ignore viable suggestions, questions, and alternative; and/or fail to provide adequate rationale for his policy. 4. As I guess you can infer by now, he simply speaks down to people sometimes. 5. He is an overly conservative Christian. Look for his books on Amazon and check out the one that is not about learning English. The text he selected for health class preaches abstinence 95% and has just one small sidebar about condoms and how they are not completely reliable. Another instance where this shone forth was with an extended dress-code war he had with Ms. B___, insisting that she wear shirts that cover up to the neck line. Eventually J___ told her: do your best to satisfy him, but what you wear is fine so just ignore his complaints.

Actually, if I didn't trust the testimony of the other teachers more than him based on my judgment of competence and character, I could justify all his decisions (at least the ones I've seen in person). And there is a very good chance that we can all get through the semester shrugging off any of his bullshit and dealing with our own business.

This school has so much going for it. I don't want you to get a negative impression because there happened to be more to say about one guy. Every story needs a villain. I'm actually more curious than concerned to see how things turn out now.

Colin in Korea Version 2.0!

Hello world,

I'm back in Korea, so I reckon I ought resurrect my blog. New year, new rules:

1. I'm not gonna advertise the re-launch, so probably only those who had me on rss feed will be aware at first: Friends, it is your job to spread the word.

2. More feedback requested, please. I appreciate anyone who even takes the interest to read, and was flattered by some of the things you told me in person regarding my un-edited babbling. But if I am to retain interest in this project a second time around, it will be because the communication is less of a one-way street. So if you can spare 5 min to read a post, I think it is not too much to ask you to, every now and then, hit the comment button and type out whatever comes to mind.

The first genuine post is shortly forthcoming; I'll talk about my first impressions about my new city and job etc. I already have a lot to say. I'll probably drop some highlights from my care-free months in the states sometime soon as well.

Going home

I'm sitting in Incheon airport's free internet lounge, so this will be my last blog post (and it will be short because I'm boarding in 20 min) written in Korea .. until I come back! I'm not 100% sure that I will, it is tempting, and I'll keep my eye open for a good deal while I look for stuff to do in America as well.

It's been an incredible year, I don't have the time to reflect on it deeply here, but there may be one more post in the near future with some parting shots.

My last week here was packed with goodbyes - friends, students, co-workers. Although I don't like the awkwardness of goodbyes, it's also sentimental in a good way to feel that I'll be missed. I guess I won't go into the details of my sayonara's, but I will add one more: Farewell to my readers: thanks for sticking with me through the year, but it is time to say goodbye to Colin the blogger, and welcome home to Colin the homeless man. My immediate plan upon arrival is to go to a wedding. Then bum around LA for a while, if I don't find a worthwhile job within a few weeks I'm heading to the SF bay area, then NYC at the end of Oct / early Nov. These are the places with the highest concentration of y'all readers of mine, so I hope I'll be able to couch surf a couple days at a time until I find a job, but if nothing pans out by mid-Nov. I'll visit my parents in Myrtle Beach then head back to Korea for next semester's university gigs.

Well, time to get on the plane; see some of you real soon.

Another idyllic day in Korea (twist ending)

Here's a brief description of one of my recent weekend days

After a lazy start to the morning I decided to take a bike ride out to the green tea farm cultivated by my buddy the monk. It's about a 90 minute ride along the scenic river then steeply up into the mountains. The day turned into a bit of a scorcher ~90 degrees, so I was happy to stop at a villiage on the way back to sip some sweet iced rice based drink out of a dried gourd in the shade of a traditional open air market.
Back home I visited my friend who works in a sandwhich shop. Since it was so hot I asked him about swimming in the river. "I don't know, it's pretty dangerous. Every year people die."
"Really?"
"Yes, this summer a middle school student drowned."
Of course, this only strengthened my resolve.
So around 6 o'clock I head down to the river bank. We have a peaceful pine forest park, and some tennis courts a little further down the bike trial that runs along the river, and the river itself has a wide sandy bank; it would make for a nice beach if it was on the ocean.
But before I can take a dip I'm sidetracked by a group of Koreans (strangers) at a picnic table calling me over. For them it is exciting to talk to a foreigner, and for me it is fun to have a conversation almost entirely in Korean. Of course the conversation wasn't too deep, a bunch of random nonsense, but I suppose the same could be said for most conversations between 1st language users. Another similarity between this conversation and a generic one between strangers is that it was fueled by booze and thus plenty entertaining. I can't tell if it was some kind of soju cocktail, or maybe a fermented fruit juice, but it was sweet and strong whatever it was we were drinking.
Anyway, after an hour or two the party broke up, and although it was dark by now it was still hot and I was still looking forward to that swim. The water was glorious, it was shallow, calm, and just the right temperature. I really felt peaceful seeing the mountains surrounding my town lit up by the moonlight and reflected in the smooth ripples of the water in which I swam; the quiet stillness broken only by the occasional splash of a jumping fish, or murmer of conversation from the park on the banks. At length, I emerged and walked up stream to retrieve my bag.
I found it surrounded by policemen! Apparently it is against the rules to swim at night. If this was Orange County California I would now be facing handcuffs and a $100+ fine, but with the good men of Hadong police force it was a simple, "We thought you were dead. Please don't swim at night." And I head home for a well earned night's rest.

Scotland trip report part III: after Edinburgh

After the better part of a week in Edinburgh it was time to visit some of the more laid back places in Scotland. So my parents, aunt and uncle and I loaded up the cars and headed out for Oban on the Western coast. The trip across was serene and very scenic. Some people enjoy traveling to meet interesting and stimulating people of ancient cultures, and kill them. That can be nice, but I really enjoy seeing the different textures of earth.

Oban is a quaint little fishing village with a harbor, a whiskey distillery, and not much else. Except of a little masonry folly on the hill that looks a bit like a miniature colleseum from outside. Aparently a local banker commissioned its construction during a period of unemployment. Nice guy.

We took the scenic route back across the country. We drove up past the Nevis range then up the west coast of loch Ness. No monster sightings, except for the beast in the 58 inch kilt throwing stones at Drumnadrochets highland games. The games themselves were disappointing, poorly attended and organized.



The last portion of the drive was across the Cairngormes - almost unpopulated purple mountain highlands (purple from the blooming heather which covers the treeless landscape).

This was a very relaxing vacation for me. Lots of good scottish food beer and a little whiskey. and reconnecting with family. My parents commented that it was gratifying to them that their children, now grown up, voluntarily choose to spend vacation time with their parents (myself in Scotland coming not too long after a trip through some of the parks of Utah that was joing by my brother and sister). Well, it is gratifying to me to be lucky enough to have family worth spending my vacation time with. Getting a couple rounds of golf out of the deal is a nice bonus as well.

The week at my folk's timeshare was dominated by golf. We played



Cullen Bay - a unique course on the north coast, the seat of Scotland. It was right on the beach where a cliff and some rock formations made for some almost cartoonish holes. Also surreal was the wind whipping through the rocks. Cullen is famous as the home of Cullen skink, a potato seafood chowder, it's delicious.



Aboyne, Ballater, and Tarland - nice courses. I don't have a whole lot to say about them.



Braemar - A most distinctively Scottish course. Nestled in the highland mountains it is beautiful and frustrating.

Finally it was time to get back to Korea to finish the last month of my contract. It took three days to travel what with 2 stopovers and a delay -> missed connection -> night in a posh heathrow adjacent hotel paid by the airline.