New Angle...

This blog is beginning an evolution. I figure it is only necessary as I have also been undergoing an evolution. I will start to focus more of my writing on the world around me. Until now I feel like it was important for me to just breathe and adjust to my settings. I finally feel like I have settled in to my life here in a way that feels comfortable and stably unsteady ;)

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Saturday the 23rd of May, the previous president of South Korea, No Muhyeon fell from a cliff while hiking. It is presumed to be suicide. He left a note, which in SoKo is a key component of suicide. Mr. Noh had been in the hot seat for bribery scandals involving big corporations and his family. The entire country has been in-mourning. On Friday (May 26th) was his funeral in Seoul. At lunch time everyone was glued to the TV screen at my school. Some teachers watched the procession the entire day when they weren’t teaching.

The students were reluctant to talk about the event except to say that they were sad. I did get much more from my fellow teachers. The men I have talked to spoke of their sadness and about the logistics of the situation. They talked about the current administration, government corruption, the pressures that go along with scandals, and how there was a good chance that the ex-president, had he have been convicted, would have received the death sentence (which according to some people is what happened: the new administration put a great deal of pressure on the prior president and he felt guilt and …). The women talked more about their emotions and how much and long they cried. I had called my mom last week and talked a little bit about this. We compared it to JFK Jr. My mom remembers life following a very similar pattern.

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Recently I have started watching a Korean drama (soap opera) called Winter Sonata. It is a very popular drama here. I was unsure of whether or not I could let myself invest time into a TV program (I watch it via internet, but watch it none-the-less). I am so sucked in. HAHA. I watch it with English subtitles, which is helping me practice listening and expanding my vocabulary. I highly recommend this drama. If you are every bored, hit up Youtube.com and type in “Winter Sonata.” It is dramatic, but I love the Korean culture.

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My favorite Korean musicians:

EPIK High: Intelligent lyrics, good beats

SG WannaBe: “LA LA LA” is my favorite Korean song, hands down. I like their sound.

BOA: Pop, she is working on breaking into the US music scene, I like “Eat You Up,” a lot… I think she has a Britney Spears feel, with a harder edge

MC Mong: Clever and funny rap.

MC Sniper: Rap that feels good. I’ve had yoga class to his tunes. HAHA. Good times.

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Swine Flu:
There has been a surge in xenophobia here. Something that is undeniable is that SoKo is a very homogenous society, with that is a definite xenophobic presence. Not everyone can be lumped into this category of having a fear of foreigners, but it exists. For more than a week there was a group of teachers kept in quarantine in Seoul. There has been more than just one group, this is just the most well known because it received media attention and the foreign community in South Korea is talking about it. The media was presenting swine flu in a way that painted foreigners as the only people who can give the virus to anyone, but thankfully there are some websites that are speaking truth about how anyone who travels is at risk. What gets me is that this is just a flu. Every year new strains come out. One of the teachers at my school is sending her daughter to the US in August and she was so scared. She said she will worry so much. I asked her how many people have actually died from this in the US. She said, at the time, 10 people. My jaw dropped. I told her that each year more than that died from other strains. The elderly and children fall victim to the flu every year. She then said that there is no vaccine. Firstly, the flu vaccines are always hit or miss. They don’t always work or sometimes they miss a strain. I think this pandemic is absurd and has something to do with consumerism. Companies want to sell products: face masks, flu medicine, etc. Create fear and you can market anything.

http://underquarantine.tumblr.com/
http://therubycanary.wordpress.com/

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This Sunday I am heading to Ulleung-do and Dok-Do with a group of 40 foreign teachers. I am really excited, but not looking forward to the seemingly arbitrary 5-page paper I am being required to write. Maybe I will feel inspired after the trip, so much so that this paper will seem to have a point. That would be awesome. My friends and I have a theory that this paper it to justify paying us… Regardless, I am aware that this is a special experience that many South Koreans want to have, but haven’t yet. In the past people needed to get permission from the government to go; as of last year 400 people a day can take a boat from Ulleung-do to Dok-do. There are four boats a day. Prior to last year only 70 people a day were permitted to go.

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This weekend I went to the Daegu National Museum. It was in an area of Daegu I have never been to, near Manchon. The museum was a good size. There were lots of artifacts dating back to the Paleolithic period. My favorite part was a series of photographs dating back to 1954. They photographs were of Daegu. In 1954 Daegu looked unbelievably different than it does today. Today there are high rises everywhere and life is so urban. These pictures are not even comparable to Gyeongsan, okay maybe parts of Gyeongsan still feel like this, but I was blown away by how much has changed in such a short amount of time…

These are the photographs that are being exhibited:
http://blog.naver.com/texasatm/150014112537
http://blog.naver.com/texasatm/150014159170
http://blog.naver.com/texasatm/150014212857

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