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• Kiwi in Korea 7 - should I stay or should I go

  Sunday, Jun 22, 2008 2:33PM / Standard Entry

  Went to Busan again on Friday.  Kahurangi had an appointment with an orthodontist who speaks fluent English (I advertised on pusanweb (expat classifieds) and was recommened him).   It was great he went to High School in Christchurch NZ (Christ College for those Kiwi's on here) and could understand my accent, in fact he has NZ citizenship.    He was very kind and even feed us (kimbab) coz he knew we had travelled for a couple of hours to get to his clinic.  If you ever need a dentist in Busan, I recommend Dr Kwon.

  Kahurangi is still very homesick and quite frankly, so am I.  I try and put a brave face on it and some days are good but mostly I am counting down the time to go home.  I actually don't want to spend a year like that.  It isn't that everything here is terrible, I like Korean food and the people are pretty much like the people in Nelson - friendly for the most part.   I just miss home, I miss food that I am used to (olives, olive oil, butter, good whole grain bread, herbs like thyme, cheese, natural unsweetened yoghurt, chickpeas, pesto, hummus, pork sausages, lean cuts of chicken, salmon, peanut butter, vegemite, freshly squeezed juice (that doesn't have a ton of sugar added), organic food...).  I miss talking at a normal pace (talking slowly all the time is actually quite exhausting).   I miss living by the ocean and swimming in it when I get hot. 

  The teaching is another thing, I like teaching and working with people of all ages but I can't say I'm passionate about English and I feel like a fraud most of the time.   If I was just teaching at the High School I would probably cope a bit better but I find the Middle School quite stressful.  The classes are larger and the age group is tougher (13-15) (this is true anywhere not just Korea) but also the teachers, although very kind are a bit odd.  My co-teacher counts up and points out exactly how many students have not understood me which makes me feel inept and the vice principal when we went out to lunch corrects my faux pas loudly and by exaggerating my behaviour as to make it look oafish even by Western standards and I certainly don't behave like that.  This embarrassed me and pissed me off.  K and I are tired of being the local zoo exhibit.   I don't know how long I will be here but don't be surprised if I go sooner rather than later.

  Okay whinge over, here are some photos of the trip:

   on the bus, the old and the new

    on the bus- I love the pastel colours of the apartments to the right.

   first time I have been in a backpackers that was an apartment in a highrise.  The guy on the laptop has been travelling for 7 years while working on his computer. He is going to buy an apartment in Rio de Janero.  I want his job.

   Seomyeon Subway Station - always be prepared.

   Someone catches 40 winks on multi-coloured chairs at the Sasang Bus Terminal. 

  
  

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• The F word

  Sunday, Jun 22, 2008 1:41PM / Standard Entry

  That's right boys and girls, I'm talking about feminism, when did it become such a bad thing to be a feminist.  Hearing "I'm not a feminist but..." makes me want to bang my head against the wall.   Feminism is about choice for woman, wanting equal pay for equal work, living a life free from domestic and sexual abuse.  It is not about hating men (I love men) and being militant and burning bras etc.  

  I was reading Mark Allen's blog before (about rape prevention) and it really pissed me off.  It is the exact reason why it makes feminist's nervous when martial artists run self defence courses.  Not because they don't know their stuff when it comes to physical defence but because many - but not all, some have a good awareness and analysis - lack any gender analysis or awareness of the attitudes and constructs in society that keep women unsafe.  It is a complex issue to blog about so I am just going to insert an earlier blog of mine (from a myspace bulletin) that I feel sums the issue up quite nice...

  A lot has been said about how to prevent rape.
  
  Women should learn self-defense. Women should lock themselves in their houses after dark. Women shouldn't have long hair and women shouldn't wear short skirts. Women shouldn't leave drinks unattended. Fuck, they shouldn't dare to get drunk at all.
  
  
  instead of that bullshit, how about:
  
  if a woman is drunk, don't rape her.
  if a woman is walking alone at night, don't rape her.
  if a women is drugged and unconscious, don't rape her.
  if a woman is wearing a short skirt, don't rape her.
  if a woman is jogging in a park at 5 am, don't rape her.
  if a woman looks like your ex-girlfriend you're still hung up on, don't rape her.
  if a woman is asleep in her bed, don't rape her.
  if a woman is asleep in your bed, don't rape her.
  if a woman is doing her laundry, don't rape her.
  if a woman is in a coma, don't rape her.
  if a woman changes her mind in the middle of or about a particular activity, don't rape her.
  if a woman has repeatedly refused a certain activity, don't rape her.
  
  if a woman is not yet a woman, but a child, don't rape her.
  if your girlfriend or wife is not in the mood, don't rape her.
  if your step-daughter is watching tv, don't rape her.
  if you break into a house and find a woman there, don't rape her.
  if your friend thinks it's okay to rape someone, tell him it's not.
  if your "friend" tells you he raped someone, report him to the police.
  if your frat-brother or another guy at the party tells you there's an unconscious woman upstairs and it's your turn, don't rape her, call the police and tell the guy he's a rapist.
  
  tell your sons, god-sons, nephews, grandsons, sons of friends it's not okay to rape someone.
  
  
  don't imply that she could have avoided it if she'd only done/not done x.
  don't imply that it's in any way her fault.
  don't let silence imply agreement when someone tells you he "got some" with the drunk girl.
  don't perpetuate a culture that tells you that you have no control over or responsibility for your actions. You can, too, help yourself.

  Update: Mark has removed the entry as he wants to think about the issue more and of course he did not mean any harm by his comments.   I am certain he meant well by the blog.  I just get tired of the advice given to women that restricts our behaviour but not that of men (men are not advised to not get drunk at parties).    It also ultimately ends up being used to apportion blame to women survivors/victims of sexual assault.   Women have been taking varying degrees (from all to some) of responsiblity for sexual abuse for centuaries and it does not keep us safe, it merely removes focus from perpetrators.   At the end of the day it does not matter what women do and don't do, if there were no rapists there would be no rape.

  
  

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• Jane Chu's colour game

  Friday, Jun 20, 2008 5:44AM / Standard Entry

  Yay, I like stuff like this - great idea Jane!!

  Here are my photos

   green bag. Zing's red outfit orange dictionary brown chair blue puzzle  purple hand mirror yellow plastic bag  black shoe  I know white wasn't listed but I thought why not......

   

  
  

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• Kiwi in Korea 6 - Busan

  Sunday, Jun 8, 2008 6:12PM / Standard Entry

  Hi all

  It was a long weekend here so K and I finally braved the buses and trains and went to Busan.  We stayed at Haeundae Beach, which is apparently famous, well it's famous in Korea and my supervisor used to have this picture on his office wall (because it contrasted starkly people wise with our local beaches in Nelson - you should know this is my idea of hell, however the beach is only like this in the summer holidays here in Korea - I intend to avoid at that time).  I am taking K to Japan in August for my week holiday.

  This weekend was a long weekend and the 21st sand sculpture contest at the beach so it was still busy (this is the road to the beach and our hotel).

  We went shopping in the days - it was great and I only went to the beach in the morning between 7 and 8.  It was great I love walking with my feet in the water and the ocean smells just like the ocean at home (funny that , just like the subway smelt like Syndey subway - some smells are just universal). this end of the beach reminded me of Wellington and the other end reminded me of the Gold Coast *shrugs* (in case you are wondering those are binoculars (I think) at the top right)

  Protest at importing meat from countries with Mad Cow's disease 

  and for the Kiwis - Maui fishes up Te Ika A Maui (the North Island)

  First day's shopping was all done at the megabox in Haeundae the only thing I bought was the green bag (it was hand made), and then we went to the movies - Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull and Kung Fu Panda - bloody great getting to watch movies in English

  hehe, can't go shopping in Korea and not buy a t-shirt without bad English

  On Saturday we went to Lotte and I bought K a new mp4 player (it was really expensive but what the hey) - saw these t-shirts and immediately thought of Butter.

  We then went to Foreigners St (also known as Texas st) but it was really diasppointing, the range of goods wasn't very good and the street smelt like urine and some of the shops smelt like wet dog =/  Afterwards we went to Gukje markets but we were both tired and ratty and just wanted to go back to the motel and watch telly by that stage - woot NCIS was on, yay for Magee.

   at Gukje markets - sheesh, I'm trying, I'm trying.

   Magee Rocks

  Generally everbody was very helpful and patient with the dumb waeguk (who struggled with the ticketing machines - they would often spit my money back out).  The only nuisance was this man on our way home, we weren't sure of the bus to get on and this old man was helping me, this other man thought he would help too by hitting me on the arm (hard) and pointing (the same way the old guy took me) and then he kept asking for 100 won.  I was like wtf.  I gave it to him, it is like 10cents and it got rid of him.  I joked to K that I just got mugged for 10cents.  lol

  Hope you all had a good  weekend =)  Any stories to share?

  
  

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• Kiwi in Korea 5 - junk food

  Sunday, Jun 1, 2008 12:57PM / Standard Entry

  My resolve to eat healthy has taken a few set backs.  K and I like to try out the different kinds of junk food while we are here, after all its all part of the experience

  The vegetarian pizza with fries, for some reason pickles (gherkins, whatever) are provided with the pizza, along with hot sauce. 

  I was hanging out for a chippie sandwich (which has to be with vegemite as all Kiwis and Aussies on this site can attest to; more chips did go in the sammie).  The onion ring chips were good too.

  Here's a toast to Casskickass, Cass beer is good!

  This cake was a gift on Teachers Day - May 15, apparently in the country Teachers day is a big deal and parents and students give gifts (usually food) to the teachers and the kids also go and visit their old teachers.  I also witnessed students (in groups) singing songs for their teachers.  My co-teacher said this didn't really happen in the cities.   There is no Teachers Day in NZ - I think we should have one .   I don't really do sponge cakes but this was light and delicious.  The cream was less sweet than it would be in NZ but I liked that.

  Hamming it up with K's favourite ice cream here (so far), there are pieces of gum in the stick.

  The biscuits are good but each 'cookie' is individually wrapped.  Why, who knows....

  There's no photo but one of the students gave me this yellowish strip of something the other day, they were stuffing it in their mouths, it looked like cellotape - but I appreciated the offer and ate it, thankfully it didn't taste like cellotape, it didn't really taste of anything. 

  Off the food topic, it hosed down here the other day and when I got to school these blue bins were put out for the umbrellas, there is one per class and one for the teachers.  This is a good idea but in NZ the nicer umbrellas would be pinched (infact even the less nice umbrellas would be pinched).

  For those who asked here is a photo of K's girly bed   (she just couldn't deal with some of the pink bedding so it is not shown)

  I did manage to go for a run this morning, first run since I have been here.   I went early before most people are up.   Getting stared at maybe the norm but it does wear thin sometimes - especially when one's chest is collasping - haha.

  I hope everyone is enjoying their weekend.

  
  

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