I was sitting in a coffee shop with my two Thailand travel companions last night discussing some of the details of our impending journey, among other things. One of the "other things" that I brought up was about a recent verdict in a year-old criminal case. About a year ago, an Indian oil tanker, which was legitimately anchored off the south-west coast of Korea, was rammed by an out-of-control Korean shipping vessel owned by Samsung. There was a massive oil spill, and during the catastrophe, the Indian captain and first-mate were required to take an action which prevented an explosion, but also increased the amount of oil spilled into the ocean. In addition, it took about 3.5 hours for the sailors to notify any Korean authorities about the disaster; I guess the whole avoiding-an-explosion thing took a little while to pass over.
This past Wednesday, the Indian captain and first mate in charge of the ship were sentenced to 18 months and 8 months in jail, respectively. They were also heavy fines levied against them. The reasoning of the court was that the actions which increased the amount of oil spilled (and prevented an explosion) and the 3.5 hours required to notify authorities of the accident were unacceptable. In essence, the two Indian men are currently facing significant jail time because some Koreans couldn't keep their boat under control. I am pretty sure that the Koreans involved are also facing penalties, but I don't know what they are.
So last night, I went off on a rant about how the Korean "justice" system is corrupt and downright insane, and how Koreans everywhere can never take responsibility for their own mistakes. I said that this recent verdict was an example of how an incident involving a foreigner invariably leads to that foreigner being blamed for said incident (I've read about many other stories where this is the case.) Koreans can never be the only ones to blame, it's never their fault.
Anyway, today I felt myself becoming increasingly cynical about this country, so in the spirit of Christmas, I have decided to reflect on some of the things that Koreans have done for me over the last 3 months:
At the start of the school year, I was given a box of some very fancy Korean hair-care products that are apparently rather expensive. Not exactly the most useful thing I've ever been given, but the sentiment was nice.
About 6 weeks into my contract, I became very sick with what I guessed was food poisoning. I had to take 2 days off of work, and on the first day, one of my co-teachers met me after getting off work to take me to a clinic. After finishing there, her husband drove me home. And on my first day back to work, my favorite student brought me a package of cold medicine that she had bought from a nearby pharmacy with her own money.
One of the local PC centers (a place where there are dozens of computers with games and internet access on them) has generously allowed me to appropriate one of their computers for my own use. They let me install a couple of English games on it and if I ever come in to use the computer and it is occupied, they will ask the person using it to move to another computer. While it is very flattering, I usually try to prevent them from doing this, but I am not always successful. Can you imagine a store in America doing this for a customer? I can't.
I am sitting in my favorite coffee shop writing this, and just a few minutes ago, when I returned my used cup to the counter, the person working the counter handed me a brand new 2009 Calendar still in its plastic wrapping. It bears the same brand name as the coffee shop, so I am guessing it is some sort of merchandise that they normally sell but decided to give to me for some reason. I always bring my used cups and trash up to the counter before leaving so that they don't have to clean up after me, something I have never seen a Korean do. Maybe the calendar was a thank-you gift?
I have become good friends with one of the science teachers at my school who speaks very little English. Every now and then we will go to the PC center after work to play some starcraft (yes, it's still huge here and he is amazing even by Korean standards) and then grab some dinner. A couple of weeks ago he showed me how to play Korean billiards, which is much much harder than pocket (normal) pool. And every time we hang out, I never pay a cent. He won't let me. He has espoused me as his "younger brother" and views it as his responsibility to pay for everything.
Every now and then, some of the teachers and I play ping pong after school. Sometimes we then go out to dinner after playing, and once again, I am never allowed to pay.
Most Koreans have a propensity for extreme generosity towards foreigners, and I think I need to remember that more often.
Saturday, December 13, 2008
Thursday, December 4, 2008
Reflections
A few days ago marked the end of my third month here in Korea, so I thought I'd share a few thoughts regarding life here in Korea. Here are a few things I've learned thus far:
1) Korean, like all Asian languages, is hard. It is also phonetically offensive, a brutal assault on the ears. But contrary to my initial beliefs, it is not stupid, nor useless. There are many interesting policy and social issues here, but speaking Korean would be pretty much essential for studying them.
2) Koreans for the most part live in a state of near lawlessness. Every day I see impatient Koreans blow through red lights, putting the lives of every nearby pedestrian (mostly students) in jeopardy. And they get away with it 100% of the time because the police here are corrupt, lazy, and useless, and do not enforce any basic traffic laws. I think it may be only a matter of time before I am involved in a confrontation with one of these drivers, and god help them if they put any of my students in danger.
3) I am a second-class teacher in the eyes of everybody in the school. This is not terribly offensive to me, because compared to the other teachers (who all have training AND experience whereas I have none) this is not an unreasonable opinion. I am also not bothered by this because the amount of work I do compared to the other teachers is fractional, and also because I have no desire to be a career teacher. I will do this for another 9 months and then I will likely never teach again.
4) I wrote an essay for some essay contest that the EPIK program was holding, mostly because I needed something to do during the 3rd graders' finals week. While writing this essay, I read a very interesting survey that was conducted around 1980 regarding happiness in Korea. Apparently, only 57% of Koreans were happy with their lives in 1980, and only 32% felt a sense of accomplishment in their life. These numbers are EXTREMELY low; 91% of Americans considered themselves happy, and 86% felt a sense of accomplishment. Given the way Korean society has changed over the last 30 years, I would guess that these numbers have either gone down or stayed the same in Korea.
5) Another piece of information that I got from my research: Seoul National University is the ultimate goal of any serious student in Korea, and most students qualify as "serious students". The acceptance rate at SNU is extremely low, and most students fail to get in. The amount of studying and private tutoring received by those who DO get in is unbelievable, and it has its effects on the students' mental health. About 14% of those admitted in 1980 suffered from nervous illness, character blocks, or nervous breakdowns. This is also the reason why 44% of students who study at universities abroad fail out, according to a recent article published by a Columbia University Ph.D. student.
6) Suicide is a HUGE problem here. The suicide rate in Korea is the highest among industrialized countries. The suicide rates tend to jump around exam times, as students who do poor on an exam are prone to suicide. Recently, several famous actors committed suicide within a couple of weeks of each other. One did it because he was facing money problems; another actress did it because a "netizen" started a false, malicious rumor about her. I could only think to myself, "these people wouldn't last 5 minutes as celebrities in America." There is no suicide prevention, no education, and as far as I know, no hotline or any type of help service. The Korean approach to suicide is simply to not talk about it. Koreans simply do not value life. They value school (for their children that is), physical appearance, and that's about it.
7) Koreans look in the mirror an average of about 10,000 times per day.
8) When not looking in the mirror, they are looking for a mirror in which to look.
9) The fact that I do not wear makeup of any kind is astonishing to my co-teachers, which in itself is astonishing to me.
10) I can get the most delicious food from vendors on the side of the street for dirt cheap, which is something that I am desperately going to miss when I do leave.
11) It is becoming increasingly less difficult to suppress a laugh when Koreans tell me they think the North and South will be reunified in the near future.
Unfortunately, I am starting to lose a lot of respect for the Koreans. I really enjoy my school and everyone who works at it, and I respect them all a lot. It's the rest of Korea that is making me cynical. They have so many problems, but they are all too lazy to do anything about them. It's considered normal to do as little work as possible here. When things go wrong, standard procedure is to ignore the problem until it goes away; if it refuses to go away, blame somebody else. The Koreans need a serious wake-up call, but I'm afraid they'll be too busy looking in the mirror whenever it comes knocking.
1) Korean, like all Asian languages, is hard. It is also phonetically offensive, a brutal assault on the ears. But contrary to my initial beliefs, it is not stupid, nor useless. There are many interesting policy and social issues here, but speaking Korean would be pretty much essential for studying them.
2) Koreans for the most part live in a state of near lawlessness. Every day I see impatient Koreans blow through red lights, putting the lives of every nearby pedestrian (mostly students) in jeopardy. And they get away with it 100% of the time because the police here are corrupt, lazy, and useless, and do not enforce any basic traffic laws. I think it may be only a matter of time before I am involved in a confrontation with one of these drivers, and god help them if they put any of my students in danger.
3) I am a second-class teacher in the eyes of everybody in the school. This is not terribly offensive to me, because compared to the other teachers (who all have training AND experience whereas I have none) this is not an unreasonable opinion. I am also not bothered by this because the amount of work I do compared to the other teachers is fractional, and also because I have no desire to be a career teacher. I will do this for another 9 months and then I will likely never teach again.
4) I wrote an essay for some essay contest that the EPIK program was holding, mostly because I needed something to do during the 3rd graders' finals week. While writing this essay, I read a very interesting survey that was conducted around 1980 regarding happiness in Korea. Apparently, only 57% of Koreans were happy with their lives in 1980, and only 32% felt a sense of accomplishment in their life. These numbers are EXTREMELY low; 91% of Americans considered themselves happy, and 86% felt a sense of accomplishment. Given the way Korean society has changed over the last 30 years, I would guess that these numbers have either gone down or stayed the same in Korea.
5) Another piece of information that I got from my research: Seoul National University is the ultimate goal of any serious student in Korea, and most students qualify as "serious students". The acceptance rate at SNU is extremely low, and most students fail to get in. The amount of studying and private tutoring received by those who DO get in is unbelievable, and it has its effects on the students' mental health. About 14% of those admitted in 1980 suffered from nervous illness, character blocks, or nervous breakdowns. This is also the reason why 44% of students who study at universities abroad fail out, according to a recent article published by a Columbia University Ph.D. student.
6) Suicide is a HUGE problem here. The suicide rate in Korea is the highest among industrialized countries. The suicide rates tend to jump around exam times, as students who do poor on an exam are prone to suicide. Recently, several famous actors committed suicide within a couple of weeks of each other. One did it because he was facing money problems; another actress did it because a "netizen" started a false, malicious rumor about her. I could only think to myself, "these people wouldn't last 5 minutes as celebrities in America." There is no suicide prevention, no education, and as far as I know, no hotline or any type of help service. The Korean approach to suicide is simply to not talk about it. Koreans simply do not value life. They value school (for their children that is), physical appearance, and that's about it.
7) Koreans look in the mirror an average of about 10,000 times per day.
8) When not looking in the mirror, they are looking for a mirror in which to look.
9) The fact that I do not wear makeup of any kind is astonishing to my co-teachers, which in itself is astonishing to me.
10) I can get the most delicious food from vendors on the side of the street for dirt cheap, which is something that I am desperately going to miss when I do leave.
11) It is becoming increasingly less difficult to suppress a laugh when Koreans tell me they think the North and South will be reunified in the near future.
Unfortunately, I am starting to lose a lot of respect for the Koreans. I really enjoy my school and everyone who works at it, and I respect them all a lot. It's the rest of Korea that is making me cynical. They have so many problems, but they are all too lazy to do anything about them. It's considered normal to do as little work as possible here. When things go wrong, standard procedure is to ignore the problem until it goes away; if it refuses to go away, blame somebody else. The Koreans need a serious wake-up call, but I'm afraid they'll be too busy looking in the mirror whenever it comes knocking.
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
The Daegu Theater Troupe
This past weekend marked the debut performance of the Daegu Theater Troupe. A couple of months ago, my friend Kristin suggested forming a group for those of us who enjoyed theater in our college and high school days, and this weekend, we put on our first show. It was a 24-hour one-act marathon, and it was hugely successful. Here's how it worked:
-There were 6 groups, each with an average of about 4 people.
-On Friday night, all the participants met downtown and were divided into the 6 groups.
-Each group had one writer, one director, and 2-4 actors.
-The meeting took place at 10:30, lasted until about 11:00, at which point each group's writer went off to write a 10-15 minute script.
-At 9:30AM the next day, and after the writers had stayed up all night long writing, the directors and actors met with the writers. After an initial read-through and discussion of the script, the actors went to work learning it.
-Throughout the course of the day, we were able to spend some time on the stage that we would be performing on, as well as discuss any lighting effects with our technical guy.
-At about 11:30PM on Saturday night, after roughly 14 hours of rehearsing, each group put on its show in front of an audience of around 150-200 people.
My group's show was really neat. I was afraid that all the scripts were going to be juvenile comedies, but our writer actually put together a pretty dark piece. I played the main role of a prison inmate on death row for the gruesome murder of several people. I was basically a psychotic killer who liked to shove pencils through people's heads. The other 2 characters were a prison guard and an artist commissioned to paint my portrait. Our show actually had a dramatic twist at the end; it turned out that my character was actually also a guard, and our prison actually had no prisoners yet (it was brand new.) Myself and the other guard liked to pass the time by messing with people.
Like I said, the show was hugely successful and great fun. There will be another show of some kind in the not-so-distant (I hope) future, and there are also branch-off groups forming within the troupe. For example, some people are planning on organizing something along the lines of an ImprovEverywhere stunt. If you aren't familiar with ImprovEverywhere, they are a group of actors, who are between jobs, who stage random scenes of...well, total randomness. For example, one stunt they pulled was to have around a dozen people break out into a musical in the middle of a crowded food court in a mall. The video is here: http://improveverywhere.com/2008/03/09/food-court-musical/
The top of the page is pictures and a summary of the birth of the idea, putting it together, etc. To just watch the video, scroll down towards the bottom of the page. You should also check out some of their other videos, some of them are really hilarious.
In other news, I bought a plane ticket to Thailand, which I will be visiting with some friends in late February. This is the start of the summer months (I think) in Thailand, so I am looking forward to sprawling out on some tropical beaches in 90-degree weather while the whole of Korea wallows in its frozen dreariness.
Also, today was my last day of outright teaching my least favorite group of classes. Every other Tuesday I have four 1st-grade classes, each of which I am convinced were spawned in the bowels of hell itself. Today was no different, they were little demons as usual. One class was so bad that I took the entire class down to the hallway outside the teachers lounge, had them kneel up against a wall, and put their hands in the air for almost the entire 45-minute period. This is about as far as I am allowed to go in terms of corporal punishment (it is also as far as I am willing to go; hitting a child is unacceptable in my opinion.) Fortunately, they will be testing the next time I am supposed to see them, and shortly after exams the semester will be over, at which point I have roughly 2 months off!
Hallelujah.
-There were 6 groups, each with an average of about 4 people.
-On Friday night, all the participants met downtown and were divided into the 6 groups.
-Each group had one writer, one director, and 2-4 actors.
-The meeting took place at 10:30, lasted until about 11:00, at which point each group's writer went off to write a 10-15 minute script.
-At 9:30AM the next day, and after the writers had stayed up all night long writing, the directors and actors met with the writers. After an initial read-through and discussion of the script, the actors went to work learning it.
-Throughout the course of the day, we were able to spend some time on the stage that we would be performing on, as well as discuss any lighting effects with our technical guy.
-At about 11:30PM on Saturday night, after roughly 14 hours of rehearsing, each group put on its show in front of an audience of around 150-200 people.
My group's show was really neat. I was afraid that all the scripts were going to be juvenile comedies, but our writer actually put together a pretty dark piece. I played the main role of a prison inmate on death row for the gruesome murder of several people. I was basically a psychotic killer who liked to shove pencils through people's heads. The other 2 characters were a prison guard and an artist commissioned to paint my portrait. Our show actually had a dramatic twist at the end; it turned out that my character was actually also a guard, and our prison actually had no prisoners yet (it was brand new.) Myself and the other guard liked to pass the time by messing with people.
Like I said, the show was hugely successful and great fun. There will be another show of some kind in the not-so-distant (I hope) future, and there are also branch-off groups forming within the troupe. For example, some people are planning on organizing something along the lines of an ImprovEverywhere stunt. If you aren't familiar with ImprovEverywhere, they are a group of actors, who are between jobs, who stage random scenes of...well, total randomness. For example, one stunt they pulled was to have around a dozen people break out into a musical in the middle of a crowded food court in a mall. The video is here: http://improveverywhere.com/2008/03/09/food-court-musical/
The top of the page is pictures and a summary of the birth of the idea, putting it together, etc. To just watch the video, scroll down towards the bottom of the page. You should also check out some of their other videos, some of them are really hilarious.
In other news, I bought a plane ticket to Thailand, which I will be visiting with some friends in late February. This is the start of the summer months (I think) in Thailand, so I am looking forward to sprawling out on some tropical beaches in 90-degree weather while the whole of Korea wallows in its frozen dreariness.
Also, today was my last day of outright teaching my least favorite group of classes. Every other Tuesday I have four 1st-grade classes, each of which I am convinced were spawned in the bowels of hell itself. Today was no different, they were little demons as usual. One class was so bad that I took the entire class down to the hallway outside the teachers lounge, had them kneel up against a wall, and put their hands in the air for almost the entire 45-minute period. This is about as far as I am allowed to go in terms of corporal punishment (it is also as far as I am willing to go; hitting a child is unacceptable in my opinion.) Fortunately, they will be testing the next time I am supposed to see them, and shortly after exams the semester will be over, at which point I have roughly 2 months off!
Hallelujah.
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
Hope Restored
It's difficult, but I can remember the exact moment that I was last proud to be American. It was a little over 7 years ago, during the week of September 11th: I was in the car listening to a story on the radio about a homeless man donating the $1.67 that constituted his net worth to the relief efforts. I remember thinking to myself, never in my life have I ever been more proud of my country, and of people in general. September 11th showed humanity at its worst, but it also showed humanity at its best, and it just so happened that the best was being represented by Americans.
And then March 2003 came around, and everything changed. I watched in anger as our President, a man who was elected despite losing the popular vote in 2000, invaded a sovereign country on what turned out to be nothing more than a whim. I watched in horror as congress passed and later re-enacted the Patriot Act, the most flagrant violation of civil freedoms and common decency this country has seen since Jim Crow. I watched helplessly as one of the greatest and most inspiring documents the world has ever seen, the Constitution, was shredded on the altar of fear, and one of the darkest chapters in U.S. history descended upon us. And in 2004, I watched in shame as our country re-elected George W. Bush.
I don't mean to sound melodramatic, but the simple truth is that for the past 7 years I have been wallowing in lament of better days, as have many Americans. Hell, "better days" seemed like a luxury at this point. But today there is something to be proud of. Today there is something to be hopeful of. Today, we have shown the world that Fairness and Equality are more than just words we inscribe on courtroom doors: they are ideals that have come to hold more significance than our legacy of disparity. And it is with great temerity that I once again look forward to better days.
Congratulations to the 44th President of the United States, Barack Obama, and to all who helped elect him. Thank you for making me proud to be an American once again.
And then March 2003 came around, and everything changed. I watched in anger as our President, a man who was elected despite losing the popular vote in 2000, invaded a sovereign country on what turned out to be nothing more than a whim. I watched in horror as congress passed and later re-enacted the Patriot Act, the most flagrant violation of civil freedoms and common decency this country has seen since Jim Crow. I watched helplessly as one of the greatest and most inspiring documents the world has ever seen, the Constitution, was shredded on the altar of fear, and one of the darkest chapters in U.S. history descended upon us. And in 2004, I watched in shame as our country re-elected George W. Bush.
I don't mean to sound melodramatic, but the simple truth is that for the past 7 years I have been wallowing in lament of better days, as have many Americans. Hell, "better days" seemed like a luxury at this point. But today there is something to be proud of. Today there is something to be hopeful of. Today, we have shown the world that Fairness and Equality are more than just words we inscribe on courtroom doors: they are ideals that have come to hold more significance than our legacy of disparity. And it is with great temerity that I once again look forward to better days.
Congratulations to the 44th President of the United States, Barack Obama, and to all who helped elect him. Thank you for making me proud to be an American once again.
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
Pics
Busan pics are up: http://s390.photobucket.com/albums/oo343/Ncalverley2/?start=0
All of the new pictures are on the first page. The last ones are from the dance, which didn't come out at all (and which I am very upset about). I decided to upload of best of the crap pictures just for some evidence of what this event was like.
All of the new pictures are on the first page. The last ones are from the dance, which didn't come out at all (and which I am very upset about). I decided to upload of best of the crap pictures just for some evidence of what this event was like.
Monday, October 6, 2008
A Night on the Town
Today was our school's festival. I wasn't sure what to expect, but I thought the event was going to be outside. As it turns out, "school festival" is just a key word for multi-disciplinary concert. It was basically 3 hours of performances by bands, dance groups, and singers. It was actually really cool and a lot of fun.
When it came time for us teachers to do our routine, we were announced before coming onto the stage, and when we were announced, there was an enormous roar from the crowd. Apparently this was a highly anticipated performance. And so we walked out from stage right, carrying signs that were to be used about halfway through the song. Myself and one of the other guy teachers were wearing white tank-tops, black pants, and a red bowtie adorned with red sequins. The ladies were wearing black tights with black mini-skirts and black blouses. I was the last of our group to walk out onto the stage, and when I did, I was almost deafened by the further eruption of screaming.
The kids (actually it was almost entirely the girls) were screaming throughout the whole routine. It may has well have been N'Sync concert...you know, the kind of pointless concerts where any music is drowned out by the incessant screaming of teenage girls. We did our routine, and it went very smoothly. It was a huge hit, and I have to admit, it was a lot of fun. I'll be a celebrity at school for the next week or so.
Following the concert, most of the teachers went out for a nice lunch at a restaurant. The main course was a very delicious type of fish in a slightly spicy stew. For some reason, I had a reputation (which I did not know about) among the teachers as being a "heavy drinker". Because of this, various older teachers (all guys) kept filling two glasses with beer and handing me one while they take the other. They would then say "no break-ee" and proceed to chug the beer, expecting me to do the same. I happily obliged them but couldn't help but feel that my coworkers were trying to get me drunk...
Following lunch, me and several of the younger teachers went out for bowling. We had 6 people who were divided into 2 teams of 3. We played three games and my team won every single game, riding mostly on my dominating performances of 178, 182, and 140. This won the three of us free drinks and food for the rest of the night.
Following bowling we stopped at our homes to change, and then headed out to a seafood restaurant (the same group of 6.) We had grilled clams and a variety of side-dishes, all of which were very delicious. We downed 5 bottles of soju (for anyone who doesn't know, Soju is a Korean liquor that most resembles vodka, but it is only about 20% alchohol, not 40%). We spent a good amount of time just talking. They tried to teach me a lot of Korean.
Following that, we capped off the night with some Noraebang ("Song Room" - Karaoke) and beer. We were all sufficiently smashed at this point, and that's when Noraebang is the most fun. They did some Korean songs while I played tambourine drank beer, and then we all did some American songs. My favorites were "Johnny B. Goode" and "Bad Case of Loving You".
All in all, it was probably my best day in Korea so far. I had about a dozen pictures taken of us dancing which I will be getting developed today, so once I have them I will post them on photobucket or whatever crazy site I used last time. Also, there's a new article up from the NYTimes on the right side of the blog for anyone who has been following the Fan Death saga.
When it came time for us teachers to do our routine, we were announced before coming onto the stage, and when we were announced, there was an enormous roar from the crowd. Apparently this was a highly anticipated performance. And so we walked out from stage right, carrying signs that were to be used about halfway through the song. Myself and one of the other guy teachers were wearing white tank-tops, black pants, and a red bowtie adorned with red sequins. The ladies were wearing black tights with black mini-skirts and black blouses. I was the last of our group to walk out onto the stage, and when I did, I was almost deafened by the further eruption of screaming.
The kids (actually it was almost entirely the girls) were screaming throughout the whole routine. It may has well have been N'Sync concert...you know, the kind of pointless concerts where any music is drowned out by the incessant screaming of teenage girls. We did our routine, and it went very smoothly. It was a huge hit, and I have to admit, it was a lot of fun. I'll be a celebrity at school for the next week or so.
Following the concert, most of the teachers went out for a nice lunch at a restaurant. The main course was a very delicious type of fish in a slightly spicy stew. For some reason, I had a reputation (which I did not know about) among the teachers as being a "heavy drinker". Because of this, various older teachers (all guys) kept filling two glasses with beer and handing me one while they take the other. They would then say "no break-ee" and proceed to chug the beer, expecting me to do the same. I happily obliged them but couldn't help but feel that my coworkers were trying to get me drunk...
Following lunch, me and several of the younger teachers went out for bowling. We had 6 people who were divided into 2 teams of 3. We played three games and my team won every single game, riding mostly on my dominating performances of 178, 182, and 140. This won the three of us free drinks and food for the rest of the night.
Following bowling we stopped at our homes to change, and then headed out to a seafood restaurant (the same group of 6.) We had grilled clams and a variety of side-dishes, all of which were very delicious. We downed 5 bottles of soju (for anyone who doesn't know, Soju is a Korean liquor that most resembles vodka, but it is only about 20% alchohol, not 40%). We spent a good amount of time just talking. They tried to teach me a lot of Korean.
Following that, we capped off the night with some Noraebang ("Song Room" - Karaoke) and beer. We were all sufficiently smashed at this point, and that's when Noraebang is the most fun. They did some Korean songs while I played tambourine drank beer, and then we all did some American songs. My favorites were "Johnny B. Goode" and "Bad Case of Loving You".
All in all, it was probably my best day in Korea so far. I had about a dozen pictures taken of us dancing which I will be getting developed today, so once I have them I will post them on photobucket or whatever crazy site I used last time. Also, there's a new article up from the NYTimes on the right side of the blog for anyone who has been following the Fan Death saga.
Saturday, October 4, 2008
Pusan...Finally
So we had another long holiday weekend this weekend, and some of us decided to go check out the Pusan International Film Festival (PIFF). It is the largest film festival in Asia, and one of the largest in the world. Filmmakers from all over the world submit their films to be seen by millions of people. The city itself is already the second largest in Korea, but this weekend it saw way more traffic than normal. I have to admit, I was expecting to see some of those crappy super-independent "artsy" films, the ones that are black and white and have no sound. But I was pleasantly surprised by a couple of very professional films that were highly entertaining. More on those in a minute.
We got to Pusan around noon, and spent the first couple of hours running around looking for a hotel for the night, and a box office where we could buy tickets to the films later that night. After checking at a couple of regular motels (which were all sold out of rooms for the weekend) we managed to find a shady "love motel". The prices were low and the rooms were clean enough, so we said whatever and got some rooms for the night (there were about ten of us). After that, we spent a good 90 minutes or so running around looking for a box office before we finally found one. You really can't beat a two-film double feature for 5 dollars.
To kill time before showtime, we went to the Pusan Aquarium, which is one of the biggest tourist attractions in the city. To be honest, I was a little disappointed, but it was still a really great aquarium. I took some nice pictures, and as soon as I get them developed I will post them. It could be a little while though since I didn't yet finish the roll of film.
Showtime was at 7:30. The first film we saw was a German drama about mountain climbing. It was kind of long and drawn out near the end, but the quality was phenomenal and the story was compelling. The film was in German but had English and Korean subtitles. The second film we saw was a Scottish film, but it was all in English, so that was nice. It was a sort of comedic story about Scottish aspirations of Independence from Britain, and it was a really great film. Pusan is a coastal city, the second largest in Korea next to Seoul, and the venue was an outdoor theater on one of the city's beaches. We spent most of the night watching a couple of movies under the stars, and then went out to a bar for a nightcap.
Overall it was a nice experience, though it didn't really come close to touching the Gyeongju trip. A big problem was that our group was way too big; anything above 6 people is just a bad idea, as decision-making becomes exponentially more difficult once that 6 person limit is surpassed. I'll have to be sure to protest against a large group the next time I go anywhere with this particular group of friends.
We got to Pusan around noon, and spent the first couple of hours running around looking for a hotel for the night, and a box office where we could buy tickets to the films later that night. After checking at a couple of regular motels (which were all sold out of rooms for the weekend) we managed to find a shady "love motel". The prices were low and the rooms were clean enough, so we said whatever and got some rooms for the night (there were about ten of us). After that, we spent a good 90 minutes or so running around looking for a box office before we finally found one. You really can't beat a two-film double feature for 5 dollars.
To kill time before showtime, we went to the Pusan Aquarium, which is one of the biggest tourist attractions in the city. To be honest, I was a little disappointed, but it was still a really great aquarium. I took some nice pictures, and as soon as I get them developed I will post them. It could be a little while though since I didn't yet finish the roll of film.
Showtime was at 7:30. The first film we saw was a German drama about mountain climbing. It was kind of long and drawn out near the end, but the quality was phenomenal and the story was compelling. The film was in German but had English and Korean subtitles. The second film we saw was a Scottish film, but it was all in English, so that was nice. It was a sort of comedic story about Scottish aspirations of Independence from Britain, and it was a really great film. Pusan is a coastal city, the second largest in Korea next to Seoul, and the venue was an outdoor theater on one of the city's beaches. We spent most of the night watching a couple of movies under the stars, and then went out to a bar for a nightcap.
Overall it was a nice experience, though it didn't really come close to touching the Gyeongju trip. A big problem was that our group was way too big; anything above 6 people is just a bad idea, as decision-making becomes exponentially more difficult once that 6 person limit is surpassed. I'll have to be sure to protest against a large group the next time I go anywhere with this particular group of friends.
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