Never!

I know that English is the in thing these days. I understand that you want to be hip, and show everyone how cool you are. I get your desire to dress in clothing splattered with English words, but please, PLEASE, do yourself a favor. Buy a dictionary. And never, NEVER wear a shirt that you can't translate. Don't simply assume that because you recognize and like one word (such as the word glamour, per say) that you would like all other words if you knew their meanings. Imagine my surprise, coming up behind you on the street last night. There you were, in a loose-fitting, skirt that stretched below your knees and a long sleeved t-shirt, looking like a very modest and conservative Daegu woman. And across your back were the words I tried to immortalize with my camera. Luckily for you, it was dark and I didn't dare turn on my flash.

Hysteric Glamour 1988
Too Drunk To Fuck

Well, it wasn't a cat-burglar!

You all know that I have the ability to sleep anywhere and through almost anything... but there's one thing that will snap anyone living alone, myself included, out of a deep sleep: something scratching at their door. This morning, shortly before 6:00, I was awakened to the sound of something scratching at my bedroom door. No, not the door leading from my bedroom to the kitchen, but the door leading from my bedroom to the back porch. Well, I hate to call it a "porch" as that's quite a misnomer. I do have a small balcony off of my foyer/entry-room, and it could be called a porch. The back porch is more of a narrow access-way/storage space that runs across the back of my floor of the building. It's about a foot and a half wide, and remarkably dirty. After checking it out on my first day in the apartment, I locked the door to the "back porch" and set a rack of clothes in front of it, never planning to open said door ever again. Then, at six this morning, something was there, scratching at my door. I got up and tiptoed into the kitchen and peered out the window, looking up and down the porch in both directions. Nothing. Was it my imagination? Had I dreamt it? I crawled back into bed... but no sooner had my head hit the pillow when the scratching began again. I returned to the kitchen and still saw nothing. I concluded that as no person could crouch on my porch without being seen from the window, it *must* be an animal. I slid the clothes-rack out of the way and opened the door... and found Toto, the Yu family rabbit. Now, Toto (sadly pronounced more like tah-tah) usually hangs out either in his cage on the first floor porch or in the yard. He's avoided me pretty consistently since my arrival, slowly hopping away the few times I've tried to pet him. Well, this morning was different - he was feeling very playful. He wanted to climb all over me, nibble on my arms, hands and pajamas, and be petted. I've never known a rabbit to show this much personality! (Just about the opposite of those boring poopy-bunnies Melissa and I had here back in 2001!) I played with him (her?) for about 15 minutes before deciding that I really needed to go back to sleep. I did take some pictures though. It's good to know that to grow the rabbits is allowed :-)

Cat House on the corner of Ass and Ass

No, you perves, not that kind of cat house! Although the corner of Ass and Ass is accurate enough (sigh). Anyway, as my mom's house is rather at maximum capacity for cats, as my house is sitting there empty, and as there's a bit of a feral kitten population in my neighborhood... well, you can guess where this is going. My house is now home to one cat (a very friendly cat, whom my mom named Cita - short for mamacita - only to later learn that she was not a mother cat at all) and three nameless feral kittens. Luckily, they've all figured the litter box system out! One of the three kittens is less skittish than the other two, who pretty much stay out of range of my mom. She's going over there every day and spending time with them in order to get them socialized. She's taken some pictures, which have been posted here. Let me know if you have any name suggestions for the kittens (two black and white, one grey).

UPDATE: Of course, the day I post this, my mom would come up with names for the little ones on her own! For those of you interested, here's what my mom has to say:

I named the 2 B&Ws Chico and Loca (for the shy one). (Or Chica and Loco, if I'm wrong about their gender. The little grey one is Shady. Anyway, Chico allowed me to pet him this morning (altho he's not at all interested), and even the other 2 were out more in my presence. Cita is letting Chico nurse from her. He can't be getting anything, and it can't be good for her incision [she was just spayed]; but they both seem to be enjoying it.

A long walk in the sun.

Who took a three hour long walk in the sweltering, midday-in-Korea-in-August sun today? Yes, yours truly, that's who. I had talked with Mr. Yu about the possibility of going shopping with his wife this morning, but when she never materialized, I figured I should do *something* with my day, other than sit half-dressed in front of my computer. So, shortly after lunch, I grabbed a bottle of water and my camera, and set out to see if I could reach the mountains located not too far north of my apartment. I checked my map, and found a possible route, although I didn't know if it would take me into the mountains or simply into the foothills. The route I took brought me north for quite a distance along the Yulhacheon Stream (following the stream south would have taken me to the place where it feeds into East Daegu's Geumhogang River) and into the foothills of the mountains. I followed the stream as far north as I could, until the road alongside of it petered out, ending at what was obviously private property. Had there not been people visible in said property, I might have simply continued north along the stream's banks; however, as I didn't wish to be caught trespassing, I took the road to the left, and walked west and uphill, until I came to the highest point along that road. From there, I could see the city of Daegu in the distance, covered in a layer of smoggy haze. To my left was some sort of tree farm (possibly out of season citrus, not sure), and as there were paths through the trees, I climbed up the tree farm's hill, hoping for a better/clearer glimpse of the city. Unfortunately, none was to be found. At this point, I had been walking for an hour and a half, and was completely (literally!) drenched in sweat, and beginning to feel somewhat sunburnt (my sunscreen having sweated off and all...), so I decided to turn around and head for home. Unfortunately, that was the point when I began to feel a blister emerging on my heel. Let's just say that by the time I made it home, my left foot was not happy with me! Anyhow, below are the pictures that I took over the course of my walk. Enjoy!

Yulhacheon Stream, northern outskirts of East Daegu
(mountains in the distance)


Yulhacheon Stream, just north of East Daegu
(mountains are a little closer!)


These orange flowers were all over the place.


You know how I love orange flowers...


The road grew quite narrow. See the bird's nest?


I got closer to the mountains...


...and closer!


In the foothills, I found this traditional cemetery.


This was where I turned around.


I took this shot back in my neighborhood at a seafood restaurant.
(No, I didn't eat there.)

not glamorous at all....

Today certainly wasn't my day for glamour, that's for certain. On my way to work I tripped on perfectly flat ground and nearly fell flat on my face (didn't though!) not once, but twice. Each time, an ajoshi (old Korean man) was staring straight at me. Each time, the ajoshi looked perplexed at my inability to walk like a normal person. Each time I smiled and each time the ajoshi broke out into a face splitting grin. At least I made the day of two old Korean men! [Foreigners! Can't even walk right.]

I was incredibly tired at work today, which is nothing new for my reality. I have an amazing ability to nap any time, any place. At the American Home (my last place of employment), we had several couches and a bed (the place was a model American home, after all), and as such had all sorts of nap-opportunities calling out to me in every room. Oedae (like most normal businesses!) is somewhat lacking in the nice-nap-space category. Cup after cup of coffee did nothing for me, so during my break this evening I pushed two chairs together and curled up, spanning them in a Jane-sized ball. I woke up to discover that I had drooled on my chair. Then I sat in said chair while organizing my stuff for class... and as such, went to class with a wet spot on my behind.

The upshot of all of this is that it's nearing midnight, and all this caffeine juicing about my bloodstream is finally having an impact.

At some point, I'll try to do something worth blogging about. Really.

Soliciting some advice for a friend

Hi everyone - I'm writing this on behalf of a friend who wishes to remain anonymous, but who is in need of some advice. Please post your opinions! Anyway, here is the story:

My friend volunteers at a non-profit organization. She has been volunteering at this particular organization for roughly four years now and LOVES it. The organization conducts the sort of work that she would like to do for a living one day, and not only does she enjoy the work, but she learns a lot that may be of use to her in the future. Anyhow, the facility where she volunteers has two live-in managers (whom she described as "an old couple"). The last time my friend was volunteering, the male-manager approached her and told her that he has fantasies about her! Needless to say, my young and happily married friend was quite freaked out by discovering that she was the object of desire for a married old coot. This is the only time in the four years that she's been going there that he has said anything of the sort, but still... Now here's the thing: she is not a paid employee. In fact, as far as she knows, she's not on any official paperwork as being associated with this place. She simply shows up and volunteers her time and effort. If she were an employee, there would be legal steps which she could follow regarding this problem, but as a volunteer, what should she do? As she put it, "I could probably tell his wife, but I get the feeling she'd just get pissed off in general, and then be suspicious of me. And I don't want to stop going there, because the work is fun, and I enjoy myself most of the time, and I'm learning a lot... So, since you have the more diverse blog-roll, perhaps you could share the story and get a response??? Anonymously please, since I haven't mentioned it to [my husband] either, cuz he'd just want me to stop going."

Because I don't really have anything worth blogging about...

Some internet site says this is my personality. A lot of it's accurate. What do you think?

Advanced Global Personality Test Results Extraversion 33% Stability 43% Orderliness 46% Accommodation 30% Interdependence 30% Intellectual 76% Mystical 76% Artistic 23% Religious 10% Hedonism 43% Materialism 10% Narcissism 43% Adventurousness 70% Work ethic 30% Self absorbed 50% Conflict seeking 10% Need to dominate 16% Romantic 50% Avoidant 63% Anti-authority 83% Wealth 10% Dependency 10% Change averse 30% Cautiousness 36% Individuality 90% Sexuality 70% Peter pan complex 56% Physical security 83% Physical Fitness 64% Histrionic 16% Paranoia 56% Vanity 83% Hypersensitivity 76% Female cliche 56%

Take Free Advanced Global Personality Test
personality tests by similarminds.com

Not to join the media circus, but this is creepy

Apparently this whack-job who has confessed to the JonBenet Ramsey killing has worked as an English teacher all across the globe - including here in South Korea. There's a Google cache version of his resume that's been floating around the Korea English-teacher chat rooms, which can be viewed by clicking here (scroll down once the link opens). Makes me shiver with revulsion. There are several discussions (here, here, etc) about this, and the need for background checks to be conducted on people wishing to work overseas.

Typhoon Wukong

Typhoon Wukong has arrived... it's been drizzling steadily since about midnight last night, and the temperature has fallen dramatically - from the upper 90s to the lower 70s. I am in temperature heaven. I did go for a short walk this afternoon, as it is finally cool enough to explore, although even with an umbrella, exploration in the drizzle tends to get kind of old pretty fast. I do have a few photos for you though:

I wore The North Korea socks today


Everything is overcast (shot from my roof)


On the way down, I thought the stairs looked
Escher enough to deserve a shot


Orange flower covered in raindrops...

The best music website

Several months ago, Laurie blogged about a music website called Pandora. (http://pandora.com/) I cannot thank her enough for sharing this information (well, I mean, I could pay her or something, but we all know I won't...) I've been waiting for access to high speed internet in order to test this out, and I finally had the time to log in yesterday, and I simply just cannot get enough. Put in the name of an artist or an album, and the website will search for songs with similarities (style, tonality, lyrics, etc). You can rate songs, and the more songs you mark as ones you like or dislike, the more personalized your "radio station" becomes. I've been listening non-stop and am already developing new favorites. And the best part? It's free!

Rock My Socks

Because K-Socks are AWESOME.

The cat says woof? Seoul Milk? The North Korea?

Close-up

The Motherland and all its socks will be mine - bwahaha!
(It's a total rip-off of The North Face)

Okay, no socks here: This one's for Melissa.
Melissa, click here to see it large-size.
They're taking over the world!!

Pets, Shopping and a Cheesecake Update

One of the most disappointing things about my time in Russia was that my host family didn't have a pet. I'm quite an animal lover, and had really hoped to have a pet to play with in my home. Luckily for me, the American Home cat, Gosha, was ever present and able to fill my lack of pet void. (And considering that I was at the AH more than I was at home, it was kind of like having a pet...) Here in Korea, I'm living on my own, and therefore have neither pets nor people to keep me company while home, and I'm considering getting a pet. While I was looking into how one goes about adopting a pet in Korea, I came across the Korean Animal Protection Society (located in Daegu!), which seems to be the closest thing in Korea to what we'd consider an animal shelter. Read the information provided - it's so incredibly heart wrenching. If any of you out there are looking for a worthy cause to donate to, please, donate to KAPS. They're trying to raise money to build a large shelter, as the current location is way too small. I've decided that unless I find a stray animal between now and my first payday (I'm on a tight budget until then, and therefore shouldn't be adding a pet to my expenses), I'm going to adopt an animal from KAPS (which of course will come home with me when I eventually leave Korea). Now the question is, do I want a dog or a cat? What? Jane, the self-professed-cat-lady-in-the-making, might get a dog? Well, after Elphie/Sally I've found myself wanting to have a happy little dog companion. On the other hand, I do love and miss cats... According to the KAPS website, there are 3 times as many cats as there are dogs at the KAPS shelter. Cat products in Korea are scarce and low quality. The first sentence there makes me think I should definitely get a cat, although the second sentence makes me wonder. Apparently KAPS imports its catfood and kitty litter! And if you read this, you'll just want to cry.

Last night, after the sun went down and the temperature dropped to a bearable level, I went out in search of a market near enough to my house to be practical and big enough to be more useful than the mini-mart (named K-Mart, of all things) that's about two minutes from my front door. Before John left he (in addition to telling random dudes with cheesecake how to find me) said to me, "There's a nice mart just up the street." I remember making some sort of noncommittal reply while wondering whether or not he was losing his grasp of the English language. A nice mart? Well, whaddyaknow. Last night I found a large store, kind of like a mini E-mart called NAIS MART. Nice mart. It's only a few blocks away and very well-stocked and affordable. Hooray!

I simply couldn't help myself.

I returned home to discover an email from Gwen, regarding the aforementioned random cheesecake bearing dude:

I read about your visit from Hee Soo... a word to the wise... he'd been asking John how he could get an American girlfriend. I have no idea what kind of a person Hee Soo is, so I can't say if that information is good, bad or neutral. I thought you'd might as well know since he seems to be able to get in your yard without you buzzing him in.... I think we should get you a chain lock. I'm sure Mr. Yu wouldn't abuse his spare key, but still... extra security when you're actually in the house.

Hmmmmm....

Weather Reports and Book Reviews

I’ve spent a lot of time in Daegu prior to this trip, so I don’t feel that pressing need to go out and explore that I have whenever I’m somewhere new for the first time. Plus it’s so unbearably hot out, and as I don’t have a car, going places means going by foot. As a result, I’ve been doing a lot of reading recently (reading being something which can be done in my air-conditioned living room and all). This may change soon: check out what wonderful news I received on Google Weather this morning:

I hope it's accurate!

But until that happens, I’m going to be enjoying quality time indoors. Today (Wednesday) is my last day off - I go back to work tomorrow. (Although only for two days, and then it’s the weekend!) I feel a little guilty about wasting my vacation time lounging around my apartment like a bum, but I’m enjoying myself, so it shouldn’t matter. Anyway, I’ve done a lot of reading in the week and a half I’ve been here.

The most recent book I’ve read is The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho. This book was recommended to me by my conversation class at the American Home. Nearly all of my students (all adults) had read it, and they all said it was wonderful. I checked out the plot - the quest of a Spanish shepherd to discover a treasure located near the Egyptian Pyramids - and it definitely seemed like something I might be interested in. I looked at the various reviews on Amazon, and they were overwhelmingly positive. Sadly, I have to admit that I feel like I wasted my money on this book. The plot is fine, although it seems more like a plot outline than an actual story. If the plot and the characters had actually been developed, it could have made an amazing novel. As it was, the book was less of a novel and more of a pseudo-religious parable. The message of the parable, follow your dreams, is a great message, but I felt as though I were being preached to for 167 pages. I simply cannot recommend this book.

On a more positive note, four of the books which accompanied me on this journey to Korea have turned out to be excellent. All four books are mysteries, from two different series. The first two, The Moor and A Monstrous Regiment of Women by Laurie King are part of an excellent series starring Mary Russell and her husband Sherlock Holmes. Okay, so Doyle’s Holmes was certainly not married to a woman more than half his age, but if he had been, he would have most certainly been wed to King’s Mary Russell. They make an excellent partnership, and the mysteries are fantastic reads. These aren’t the first books of this series that I’ve read; in fact, as of I only have two more books to go in the series! (The first book in the series is The Beekeeper's Apprentice, if you're interested.) The other two books, Fire and Fog and The Bohemian Murders were written by Dianne Day. They star a young woman named Fremont Jones who lives in California in the early 1900s. She’s a spunky, independent nonconformist, who inevitably embroils herself in fascinating mysteries. I found the first book of this series, The Strange Files of Fremont Jones, when I was home last Christmas, and fell in love with the characters. I simply couldn’t wait to read more! Now I have to get my hands on the next book in the series...

I plan to spend today reading The Foreign Student by Susan Choi. Gwen lent me this book, and I was quite surprised that I hadn’t heard of it before. Read this review excerpt:

The year is 1955 and a young Korean man has just arrived at the University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee. Chang Ahn has been dropped off at night in the middle of nowhere and left to make his way to the campus on his own: "This was the petrified figure that Mrs. Reston, the vice vice chancellor's housekeeper, found at the door to the vice vice chancellor's house.... You would not have known that the motionless person had just walked two miles straight uphill with a steady and terrified step." It soon becomes apparent that Chang, called Chuck, suffers from more than just fear of the dark. During the Korean War, he was first a translator for the United States and later a prisoner in a Communist internment camp. Even in the U.S. "he could not accept the lack of precaution as a sign that he was safe." On his first day in Sewanee, Chuck meets Katherine, a young woman who lives in town and is the secret lover of a professor who was once a classmate of her father's--and the man who first seduced her when she was 14.

Who knew there was a novel set in Sewanee? You'd think every former Sewanee student would be aware of such a thing. I’ll let you know what I think of it!

Panties and Cheesecake

As I've mentioned, it's really unbelievably hot here. Okay, perhaps it is equal in heat to South Georgia, where I spent my previous month, but while there is an AC in my apartment (thank god!) it's not the best. I've taken to wearing as little as possible while inside my house, and to be honest, I spend a lot of time lounging around in a tshirt and panties, simply because that's the coolest getup available. So last night around 10:30, I was sitting in front of my computer (no surprise there!) in a tshirt and panties... and suddenly there comes a knock on the door. Now, in order to get into my family compund, one needs a key, or to be buzzed in. I kind of figured it would be Mr. Yu, the owner. To be honest, my first reaction was that if I just sat really still, whoever was knocking would go away. Then it occurred to me that if Mr. Yu needed to get into the apartment for some reason, he has a key, and it probably wouldn't be a good idea for him to find me in such a state of undress! So I called out "Just a minute!" (he speaks English, although in hindsight, I actually know that phrase in Korean) and grabbed the first article of clothing I saw: my sarong. It's not exactly the most respectable of garments, but it's not the least either. (And as I'd worn it as a skirt on the way to and from the beach yesterday, it's not exactly like I hadn't been seen in it by Koreans before!) Anyway, I open up the door and there's a fellow standing there who is obviously not Mr. Yu. My first thought was that perhaps it was someone coming to visit the person who used to live in this apartment (but who now lives in the other upstairs apartment of this foursquare), but no, he was there to see me. (Mrs. Yu was in the background - it seems she let him in.) He intoduced himself as Hee Soo, and said that he had been friends with John (the fellow I replaced at Gwen's school). John had told him where I was living, and he decided to come over and welcome me to the neighborhood by bringing me three pieces of cheesecake! (Well, he called it cheesecake, but it wasn't anything like what we Americans consider cheesecake. Nonetheless, it was delicious!) He aparently lives just down the road from me, and he works as a merchandiser for Philip Morris Korea. He also wants to be my friend. Kind of odd, but okay. Now, I am completely convinced of the evilness of Philip Morris, but I can't hold that against a dude who brings me cheesecake.

Moral of the story, keep your pants on or you might not get cheesecake.

(PS - I've posted all of my Golden Ring City photos (minus Vladimir) here on flickr, if you're interested in some more Russia pics!)

Ra, WD40 and some jellyfish

[Note: This post has a LOT of photographs. If you have a slow connection, your server may time out. If not all of the pictures load, simply refresh the page or try right clicking on the spot where the image should be, then click show picture.]

Yesterday morning, Gwen and I set off for the Jasujeong Cave, a former amethyst mine turned kitchy tourist attraction a la Rock City, Korean style. We'd heard about the cave via this blog entry, which described it as the weirdest place in Korea. I think that the weirdness factor was lowered for us somewhat by having been forewarned to the sheer oddness of the cave, especially since the cave's website mentions nothing about aliens or Egyptians, but it was still pretty bizarre. Yes, I said aliens and Egyptians. In this case, I think pictures speak louder than words. (I should mention that even though there are very few pictures of people below, the cave was packed - it's apparently quite a popular tourist attraction in the Ulsan area. We'd expected it to be nearly empty!)

The first big hall of the cave was quite pretty.


I took several shots.


Then we moved on the the weird Egyptian hall.


And posed in front of Egyptian Boob Woman


There were even two weird (and one assumes, fake)
mummy replicas.


Gwen posed with some cavemen.


I like this shot of people approaching the Alien Exhibit.


The Alien Exhibit was definitely the strangest part of the cave.


There were a couple of small Buddhist shrines in the cave.


And several statues of naked women.


The halls were neat, although obviously manmade.
(Of course, it's a former mine, not a natural cave)


There was a diarama of primitive miners


And modern miners too.


And some paintings of funny looking dinosaurs

After leaving the deliciously cool cave and re-emerging in the over 95F heat and dripping humidity, we climbed into Gwen's car and set off in search of a nearby waterfall. According to signs, it was only a few kilometers from the cave. Unfortunately, we didn't find the waterfall. Instead, we found ourselves in a terrible traffic jam up on the side of what should have been a lonely old mountain. Instead, it seemed that nearly everyone from the nearby town of Ulsan had come to said mountain for the purpose of picnicking alongside a very shallow and rocky river (possibly connected in some way to the waterfall we never found). Eventually, we got quite fed up with the absurd traffic, and decided to get the hell out of the Ulsan area. We got back on the IC (the Korean freeway system) and headed north towards Gyeong Ju (Kyong Ju). Along the way, I was finally able to take a picture of the monstrous WD40 billboard that I first noticed on my last trip here back in 2004.

Traffic on the mountain

The masses in the river

WD40 billboard

We stopped briefly in Gyeong Ju (where I took a pretty shot of a gorgeous green rice field) and chatted with Samson. (He was involved with an English Language Camp there for the weekend; Gwen and I were quite glad that we were not!) Anyhow, we decided to head off in the direction of Pohang, in quest of some decent beaches. The main road from Gyeong Ju to Pohang is the 7. We were on the 7, headed north out of Gyeong Ju, when we began to notice odd red X marks on the "north to Pohang" signs. We found this quite confusing, especially since Gwen has gone north to Pohang on the 7 numerous times. So, we continued to ignore the signs... until we came to a spot where the 7 was blocked with barricades. There weren't any signs or anything explaining the closure, so who the hell knows. Anyhow, we ended up having to take a much longer (although quite scenic) route to Pohang. We didn't find any decent beaches on the way too Pohang, so we ended up simply stopping in the city, dining on Galbi and crashing in the first motel we found. We ended up staying up pretty late, drinking beers and chatting, and as such didn't really get an early start the next morning.

Rice fields outside of Gyeong Ju

You can tell from this shot that the red X
was made by red tape...

This smoking cherub was outside of our hotel

We went to Chilpo Beach, just a little north of Pohang. The weather was beautiful, even if miserably hot and humid, and the beach was sandy and pretty, with a beautiful rock outcropping on one end, and it was packed with people. Everyone (including us) set up tents, in order to stay out of the sun. After setting up our tent, we headed for the water. The water was a little colder than I would have liked (not as warm and wonderful as Jekyll Island!), but it would have been tolerable had it not been teeming with jellyfish! This didn't seem to stop the Koreans from swimming, but Gwen and I were really freaked out by the things. One of them was at least two and a half feet in diameter! I kid you not. Many of the jellyfish had washed up on shore, although plenty more were still floating in the water. We swam a very little (during the course of which something stung me, mildly, on my ankle), and then decided that we'd beached enough, and headed back home to Daegu.

Our view from the tent

Me, on the beach

Everyone else on the beach

Rock outcropping, north end of the beach

This man had an adorable little dog.
It made me miss Elphie (or Sally, as they're calling her)

Jellyfish!

Many of the jellyfish looked like large lumps of silicon.

Even more jellyfish!!

The road home through the hilly Korean countryside