Where is Child Services when you need them?

(this is an old picture of Jason, taken last fall)

This little boy goes by the English name of Jason. He just started the second grade this month, although he has been studying at my school since long before my arrival in Korea. Jason is absolutely adorable, well-behaved and smart. He's one of my favorite students at Oedae. Today, when I walked into his class, I noticed that his entire face was red and splotchy. One of his eyes was swollen, as was his nose. I asked what was wrong. Apparently, he had lost 5000 won (roughly $5), and his mother was so angry that she hit him in the face. This isn't the first time he has come to school with marks on his face from his mother. Back in August or September, he lost his backpack. He came to school with what looked like a rope-burn on his face. When I asked him about it, he said his mom did it as punishment for losing his backpack. There were similar incidents prior to my arrival. And of course, the face is a very visible place; who knows what sorts of abuses we're missing. Back in the US (as well as in many other countries) there would be absolutely no doubt as to what we teachers would do in a situation like this. Unfortunately, here in Korea there is no equivalent to Child Protective Services.

Terrifying.

You need to listen to this. Now.
Especially if you're an American.
Do you find that as terrifying as I do?

Spring is here!!!

Today was such a fabulous day, especially compared to the weather we had yesterday. The temperature made it up into the upper sixties (or possibly even lower seventies), the sky was a brilliant blue and a light breeze was blowing. It was warm enough to go out without even a light jacket, and I was able to open up all the windows in my apartment and finally air the place out. I needed to go to E-Mart to restock my catfood and kitty litter, and I decided to walk there and back, as the day was so beautiful. On the way there, I got some great shots of early spring blossoms.

E-Mart customers are not allowed to bring backpacks or other large bags inside the store. Lockers are provided for customers to keep their various things in while they shop. On my way out of the store, as I stopped to reclaim my backpack from one such locker, I heard a loud and frantic peeping. I looked around and found, inside a nearby locker among various other items, a little baby chick. Poor thing.

In this picture you can see, in addition to the chick, my reflection
and the reflection of the E-Mart man who then asked me to stop photographing.


Okay, so if you've read the comments on my scooter post,
you'll note that I determined that this was a Honda Scoopy,
which is supposedly not sold in the United States.
Yet why does this have a Michigan plate??

I decided to walk back to the old Banyawol train station, which I first visited back in November, for the purpose of taking more photographs. Even though the gate leading to the platform was locked, I decided to find a way onto the tracks further down from the station. From there I walked back up to the station in order to get pictures from the track-side.

Old Banyawol Train Station


Old Banyawol Train Station


There were a few rusty old chairs out by the tracks...

Waking up is hard to do.

I'm sure you know the oldies song Breaking Up Is Hard To Do. Go ahead and substitute waking for breaking, hum the tune, and you've got the soundtrack of my life. I actually didn't have too much difficulty waking up for my Korean class at the YMCA this morning... but then when I returned home, I napped the entire afternoon away. I don't feel too guilty, given that it was a dreary, drizzly day... but still! Do any of you have any non-caffeine related tips for not spending everyday somnolent?

The allegedly "intermediate" Korean class wasn't quite as scary today as it was last week - mainly because I did spend the week studying. Unfortunately, a couple of the people at my level (Rob and Julie, this means you) have decided to go back to the beginning level class, which leaves only me and one other guy whom I don't know at the dumb-asses of the class. I did manage to purchase the So-gang 1A book today, so (in theory) I should be able to catch up on some of the things I'm missing. Or I'll cause my brain to melt down completely. One or the other.

UPDATE: It's 12:20 on Saturday night (er, Sunday morning) here, and I just spent the last hour reviewing the first fifty pages of So-gang 1A. Yes, I am obviously a dork, but that has never in my life been in question. Anyway, fifty pages is a little more than a third of the book, and I feel pretty good about working through that so quickly. Of course, I can also tell that it's going to get tougher. Grrr. If only there was a class that started halfway through 1A! Sigh.

Animal Rights in Korea

It finally seems as though spring is here. Skies are blue, birds are chirping (Mia is sitting in the window, fascinated by the birdies in the trees right outside), flowers are beginning to bloom, and the little corner stores are selling popular springtime treats for kids: chicks. Yes, as in baby chickens. While I will admit that chicks are adorable peeping yellow fuzzballs, the problem is that even under optimal circumstances, eventually they grow into large, not-cute-at-all chickens. Of course, optimal circumstances are rather lacking over here:

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, that is a very small plastic bag into which this girl's newly purchased baby chick was placed by the store-keeper. (This chick was sold at a stationary store, of all places.) The store had several crates packed full of peeping chicks, ready to be sold to girls like this one, who were all oohing and ahhing over how cute they were. These spring "toys" don't have a long life expectancy - although given the preferred plastic bag method of transport, that's not surprising. On my way home from work last night, I passed a trashbag with several dead chicks poking out of the top and one tossed on the ground next to it. I took a photo and juxtaposed it with the one above. It's rather disturbing, so I didn't post it here. However, if you're interested in seeing it, click here.

Brother One Cell

My internet has been out for the past few days, and I've seriously been going through withdrawl. Yes, I am an internet addict. Anyway, the internet repairman just left (the power supply to my external cable modem had gone kaput and had to be replaced), and I am back online. I am currently listening to an episode of the Diane Rehm Show from a few days ago:

At age 23, Cullen Thomas was arrested in Seoul and sentenced to three-and-one-half years in prison for smuggling hashish into the country. He provides a view of South Korean society few Americans will ever see and describes how his experience transformed him. Listen to it here.

Granted, Thomas was a complete idiot; how stupid can you be to smuggle narcotics into South Korea? But, it's interesting to hear his description of the English-teaching culture here in South Korea back in the mid-1990s. Certainly, things have changed here quite a bit since then, but in many ways it's very, very much the same. Anyway, give it a listen. It's quite fascinating... especially his description of life inside the prison.

Anyhow, Thomas has written a book entitled Brother One Cell: An American Coming of Age in South Korea's Prisons.

I saw my dream-mobile today.

Isn't that simply awesome? It was parked on my street today, and I must admit that I stood and drooled over it for a while. I would love to get a scooter like this - if anyone in GA comes across anything like this for sale for cheap, let me know!

Shiny.

I think my head is going to explode.

So, today was the first day of Korean lessons at the YMCA. Even though it had seemed from the sign-up paperwork that there would be four levels of classes, there are (most unfortunately) only two: beginning and intermediate. During the first hour I sat in the beginning class. The teacher was really nice, but I was totally bored... We were learning hangeul, the Korean alphabet - which I've known for quite some time now. According to the syllabus, the plan is to spend the next four classes continuing to learn the alphabet. While it seemed that most of the roughly 30 other students in the beginning class were genuine beginners, there were a few of us who already knew the alphabet and a good number of nouns and short sentences.... something that the class wasn't going to get to for weeks. They had talked about splitting the beginner class into two groups, as it is so large. I had hoped that they would divide it into beginning beginners and advanced beginners, but unfortunately it seems that it will be divided between English-speaking students and Chinese students (as they have a teacher who speaks English and one who speaks Chinese).

The teacher suggested that those of us who could read the alphabet go to the intermediate class. I, for one, was quite skeptical about this, as Gwen - who has lived in Korea since 2001 - is in that class! She and I should obviously *not* be in the same level Korean class. But during the break at the halfway mark, Gwen told me that I had apparently been "placed" in her class (based on the survey I took when I signed up), as there was a name plate in the classroom waiting for me. She also said that the class was way too easy for her, although it seemed too difficult for many of the people in it. Some of us decided to try the intermediate level for the second hour. (I didn't know if I could tolerate another hour of a, ya, ka, kya, na, nya.....)

Unfortunately for me (and several others), the intermediate class was way over my head. It was conducted entirely in Korean! While I could follow a lot more than I expected, I had no idea how to respond to most of the teacher's questions, and felt like a complete dumbass. Luckily, I was seated next to Gwen, who did a lot of translation for me. Even though the class was totally above and beyond my level, I've decided to stick with it, simply because there is no point to me spending the next month and a half learning the alphabet and simple phrases.

After class, I decided to buy both the beginning class book and the intermediate class book. Unfortunately, given that all thirty or so beginners were on a quest for So-gang 1A (the beginning book), the two large bookstores downtown were all sold out. I did, however, manage to buy a copy of So-gang 1B (intermediate level). Then Gwen and I went to Starbucks and she helped me work through the first several pages of the book. I'm going to have to spend all this upcoming week studying my ass off in order to be even somewhat prepared for next Saturday. It's so embarrassing to think that I've spent fifteen (non-consecutive) months in Korea and yet I speak so little of the language. It's time I did something about that. So that's how I'm going to spend the rest of my weekend. After the nap I'm about to take.

Also, in the intermediate class, there is a Russian woman! As soon as I saw her, I was almost certain that she was Russian, and then a few minutes later, Gwen whispered to me, "That girl's from Russia!" I talked to her after class - nice to be able to talk in a foreign language that I can actually manage - her name is Katya and she's Vladivostock, and she seems nice. It's quite fascinating for me to hear Korean spoken with a Russian accent (although her Korean is really good; she's actually taken the intermediate level class before).

Okeedokee. Off to nap. Then study. Aaack.

Neither a Buddhist nor a Nudist

My friend Chris is fond of saying, “In the winter I’m a Buddhist, in the summer I’m a nudist.” Not sure where he picked that up, but it’s pretty catchy, and I must admit, that phrase was running through my head the entire time I was trudging my way through Thubten Chodron’s Buddhism for Beginners. The book is only 150 pages long, so I really should have finished it in an afternoon. Instead, I found myself distracted at every turn by other books that were simply far more interesting. Now that I’ve finished it, I suppose I should go ahead and tell you my thoughts.

First let me start by addressing the book as a *book* - setting religion aside for the moment. The work is entitled Buddhism for Beginners, and as such, I was hoping to find a work which would present Buddhism to me, a person wholly ignorant on the topic, in a logical way. The book sort of accomplished this, albeit not in the sort of format I had hoped for. Chodron compiled a list of commonly asked questions pertaining to Buddhism, and organized them into chapters by topic. (Ex: Meditation, Dharma in the Daily Life, Buddhism and Social Activism, etc.) This may sound all well and good until one considers that in order to *ask* the majority of these questions, one must already have some knowledge of Buddhism. Take the third question in the book: What are the Three Jewels? How do we relate to them? The Three Jewels had yet to be mentioned in the book, and as such I was pretty thrown off. Hell, Siddartha (the historical Buddha) hadn’t even been mentioned by that point! Even after reading the answer to the Three Jewels question, it was difficult for me to place the Three Jewels into a mental image of Buddhist worship/life.

While I found the book informative, it really wasn’t what I had hoped for. I guess I had been hoping for something that would start with the life of Siddartha, and move into his beliefs and practices, followed by the evolution of Buddhist practices and faith in the 2500 years since his death. In short, I probably should have purchased Buddhism: A History. (I don’t suppose any of you have read that?)

Now, putting the book review aside, let me share what I think about Buddhism as a religion after completing Buddhism for Beginners. I guess my main problem with Buddhism as a religion is the same essential problem I have with all other religions: I simply don’t believe in it. When it comes to things such as omniscient beings and infinite rebirths and the like, I simply lack the capacity for belief. As Rachel Weisz’s character in The Mummy says, I believe if I can see it, and I can touch it, then it's real. That's what I believe. Certainly there are a lot of aspects of modern Buddhist morality which are appealing – but there are aspects of Christian morality which are appealing too, and I’m obviously no Christian.

Also, I would just like to add that every time I hear the phrase “Three Jewels” I think Silmarils. Truly.