Korea 1.0: "service"!

So, my attention has been completely absorbed by the enthralling, surprising, and everything but boring World Cup in SA that my blog posts for the past month have been about nothing else but soccer and nothing about KOREA!!! SO, I have decided I will dedicate July to being my "let me describe everything and anything about Korea month"! I think with 4 months experience of living here now, I will be able to give the cultural bizarreness more justice than before. SO BE PREPARED for KOREA (the unedited version)!

And I think to help me illustrate my observations of strange behaviour and odd mannerisms-I will refer a great deal to ROCKETSHIP_a site where an English teacher has made cartoons relating to just about everything I want to talk about! To any foreign teacher living here for longer than 2 months-these are hilarious! Not only because his illustrations are brilliant, but the slight cultural differences and things us foreigners find unbelievably bizarre are captured so JOLLY well!

So as my "Korea 1.0" blog-i would like to describe some of the Korean services I have experienced in the last week-namely: the medical service and the postal service, and then the meaning of "SERVICE" in Korean!

Last week, I was awfully sick with a bad tummy to the point I just stopped eating and took last Thursday off school to sleep for 6 hours! By Saturday, I was still not well and decided I would brave the medical service for the first time. I pay 60000 won (R360) a month for my medical aid and decided it needed to be put to use! So, mission number 1: find a doctor's room! As my friend Kirsten says:it shouldn't be that difficult -let's just look out your window on your balcony and see if we can spot a green cross (signal for Doctor's rooms) And sure enough there it was sitting as if it knew we were looking for it-quite obviously across the street situated in a building on the second floor! So, an elevator ride downstairs, a wait at the traffic lights and a few steps later- i was in front of the receptionist showing her my medical aid card. I was told by many people-don't worry-all doctors speak English-but apparently they didn't meet this one. A balding man in his early 60s sat perched on the edge of his chair surrounded by large medical books that looked like they survived the Korean War and hadn't been dusted off since then. No privacy allowed-the door to the doctor's room had to be kept wide open for the wonderful view of a full waiting room. It's no wonder I could hear sniggers and chuckles coming from it, as I used hand signals in the motion of my intestines and pointing actions at my cramping stomach. My miming has become impeccable and so without too much fuss I was diagnosed with who knows what. I was prescribed: a long list of pills 3 times a day along with a diet of warm water, no PRUIT (fruit), no milk, no hard stuff. "So, what do I eat?" I asked, motioning with a pretend spoon moving to my mouth. "SOUPEE", he replied. My entire fee for the consultation and medication I got from the YUK (chemist)downstairs tallied up to a whopping 7000 Won (R42). Despite the ridiculously cheap price, within 2 days I felt a million times better! But I love this cartoon, as my pills came wrapped just in the same tissue paper-like wrapping! :)

As for my experience at the post office today_ my immediate reaction was_WOW-no queue, but I bet that is because nobody in Korea uses the postal service-I am sure they can send letters through their antennae on their multi-purpose cellphones! Jokes! What was delightful was the variety of gluing, taping, cutting, and pasting materials available for doing all the necessary sealing of parcels or envelopes-something we would only dream of in SA. Otherwise, the procedure was pretty similar as back home- weighing, decisions about air, land and sea, pricing and voila-PAINLESS! Except the 10 second pause of the cashier staring at the country:SOUTH AFRICA and smiling with vigorous nodding when I say casually: NAMAGONG. And I get a "UH, World Cup!" and I reply with a well-rehearsed response I give to the taxi drivers of "NAE"(YES). The small accomplishment of sending post in a foreign language is for some bizarre reason unbelievably rewarding.

As for the meaning of "service" -in Korean or the more appropriate language commonly called "KONGLISH" (Korean English)- it is one that denotes free of charge or "on the house". So often in a restaurant they will bring a coke or a sprite-equivalent (called CIDER here) and say : SERVICEEE. Korean people are pretty generous in this way-I get many things for SERVICEE-especially from my friend "George Michael" at my favourite stationery shop in town! Today, I got a free ruler and free pen and a discount on my pencil case I bought. Too SWEET!

A little glimpse of my day,

Saying Goodbye

(desperately waving)

JO

The VUVU goes "bluh" or "pwah" in KOREA!

VUVUZELA Madness!

Nothing has brought quite so much excitement in my class, as the Soccer World Cup! Here are some pics of things we've done in class-well and on the field!

Firstly, we played soccer outside as a tournament and every boy got a name tag with his team and a position. We had 2 groups with 3 teams in each group and played 6 games first round and one final match where the winners got a "trophy"! Much delight was had by all! Unfortunately, weather cut play on one day and the PE teacher on another day, so some classes were unable to play soccer. And as a result, I have never had quieter classes-the shear disappointment and sadness of not playing was sitting in the room like a huge purple elephant-and no world cup highlights or cool PEPSI adverts about soccer could save the day!

However, my next lesson was a winner-kit, fans and cheers! I think mostly because my package from home had just arrived with the wonderful contents of a VUVU and flags of the world cup and my yellow bafana jersey. It was one of the most fun lessons I have had! The boys were enthralled by trying to play the VUVU-all to no avail-bluh and pwah were the only sounds! Except one rather large boy who sits in the front gave it a huge BRRRRRR -and as you can tell-I was most pleasantly surprised! He could blow rather loudly as indicated by the boy blocking his ears next to him. Another memorable moment was when the one boy blew so badly that spit landed on his friend's face, who was quietly observing the contents of the VUVUZELA! haha!

We looked at various kit from World Cup teams and discussed brands such as NIKE, ADIDAS and PUMA. The boys thought it was funny that I thought the American kit looks like something from Miss World!I also got the boys to design their own team kit with their countries' colours-it was fun. Now my classroom is wonderfully decorated- looks great!

Today, unfortunately my classes are stunned in silence as Korea lost against Uruguay this weekend and they are obviously still recovering from the defeat! oh the love of soccer- for goodness sake it's just a game! BUT- oh- what a wonderful game! :)

It's more than a game: the nation behind the soccer can learn something from 1976!

South Africa have just lost to Uruguay 3-0 in the group stages of the World Cup @ 3:30am Korean time on 16 June 2010! And probably hence my frustration, dissapointment and motive for writing this blog entry.

Going to sleep in my Bafana Bafana shirt, I woke up 5 hours later to turn on the tele and watch our BOYS put on a show in Pretoria! Loftus has never seemed so vibrant and the bellowing of the national anthem gave me goosebumps. I felt a great sense of PRIDE knowing that the situation has come such a long way since 16 June 1976 with the Soweto uprising. The iconic picture of Hector Pieterson being carried by a fellow student with his sister running alongside springs to mind. From a day where thousands of marching students filled with hope for something better, a sense of empowerment and control in their lives and a fighting spirit fuelled by the gathering. However, it quickly turned into something catastrophic, as police opened fire on the crowd. A few hundred were killed and many more injured. The hope shattered, the sense of empowerment robbed and an internal locus of control destroyed. Yet, the courageous and fighting spirit of those students (dead, injured and alive) laid the foundations of the anti-apartheid movement. And a future 18 years later in 1994 which was filled with freedom for all humankind was as a result of such individuals who had this tremendous attitude. Our contry has certainly come along way after 16 years of democracy. And I think not only hosting, but bedazzling the world with such an impressive feat as this World Cup is another badge we should wear proudly on our bafana bafana jerseys.

However, as I watched until the sun came up, I realised that we need to be reminded of those students 34 years ago, if we as a nation want to improve even more. I feel life should be a continous struggle for improving oneself and collectively growing as a family, developing as communities and on a larger scale bettering a nation. And South Africa is a prime candidate for that-we still have problems-poverty, unemployment, poor education, insufficent healthcare, AIDS, exorbitantly high levels of crime, and shocking rates of violence are seen on or outside every doorstep.

Somehow, the soccer match against Uruguay last night was the perfect metaphor for our current situation. As the players kicked the ball around in the beginning, it seemed almost half-heartedly without courage or intent. Just as citizens seem complacent with everyday life-the crime, the poor education, the awful queues at home affairs, the high accident rates, the rape statistics, the xenophobia attacks. Where is that struggle against injustice that Hector and his friends showed? Sure, we are not fighting against a common or named enemy such as the apartheid regime but should we still not be fighting for social causes that often have not changed or even have gotten worse since 1994?

There seemed to be no urgency or voomah in the team! But even more frustrating were the completely missed goals on target from free kicks and basic slip ups, such as sloppy passing and poor defending. Should we as South Africa not focus on the basics in order to rebuild and boost our country-in my opinion that means Education, Health and Employment. It is about the basics, just as the students had in mind when they marched to demand for better education.

An external locus of control seemed the flavour of the day in the match-the ref was blamed for shocking calls and the Uruguayian players were awarded free kicks left, right and centre for Oscar winning dives and Khune was given an unjust red card . Similarly, apartheid's brutal legislation was never fair or just or deserved. Did that stop the activists? No ways-it inspired them. Although somehow, the players and supporters will justify our loss using the reasons as mentioned above. BUT, in reality we played BADLY (fullstop). Players and citizens alike need to take ownership in our lives and take responsibility for our actions. White males need to work harder to deserve jobs, people can no longer expect things to land on their laps, males need to step up and be supportive fathers, young people need to be sexually responsible and wear condoms to prevent AIDS, alcohol should be controlled to prevent road accidents and racism should be contested at all levels. We can and should no longer blame the government (old or new) or any other factor for our failures. If we want change, we should take charge of the situation and wave it as a flag for everyone to see-just as the students did in 1976! If we as South Africans don't change and take responsibility for our lives, neither will the country.

And lastly, the thing that made me the saddest while watching the match was when supporters donned in yellow started filtering out of the stadium 10-15 minutes before the end. I could see it was cold, but if we were winning no-one would have even thought about leaving! What is it about South Africans- we are such avid supporters of our national teams (rugby and cricket included) when we are WINNING! But as soon as life seems tough or we're down a goal or a wicket or a try, it is so easy to criticize and belittle the very team we hold so high when winning! And the same holds true for our nation. How does every social event or gathering involve conversation about crime? Or why are our newspaper headlines littered with news that is all but encouraging? Or why do we educate intelligent minds for them to emigrate overseas as "South Africa is lacking opportunities"? Or how can chants such as "Kill the boer" not be condemned by all of the nation? If we want to call ourselves a nation, a proud rainbow nation, we must all stand together, even in the disappointing and bad times in the dying minutes. The students came from far and wide, without telling their parents in case their plan may be interrupted. We need that comeraderie, that spirit of togetherness, so that when the police fire at us-we grab stones and throw them back together as a united body!

After all, soccer is just a game. When the glitzy trophy has been won (probably by some South American team), the broadcasting teams have packed away their cameras, fans around the world have taken off their soccer shirts and gear until 2014 and Messi's astounding footwork is displayed on another turf in another land, all we will have left will be us-the RAINBOW NATION! I believe it is a nation full of life, vibrance, energy, opportunity and hope. But in the same breath, such a nation can be hampered by our complacency, a low standard of basic living, an external locus of control and lack of responsibility, no fighting spirit and no togetherness or support! If we truly want to be a GREAT RAINBOW NATION we need to change our attitudes-just as the brave students did in Soweto on that memorable day!

VUKA SOUTH AFRICA, VUKA!!!

JO

Dae han min guk! Korea 2, Greece 0 :)

These were my photies from Songam Sports Town in Chuncheon, when we went to watch the South Korea versus Greece match which ended in a victory (2-0)! Dae han Min Guk- is the chant they all sing in the stadium which means: Great South Korean Republic! I must say that is the one cool thing about being away from home during the World Cup is witnessing how other people celebrate football! Let me just say-it was rather crazy! There were flares and huge flags, fireworks, cheers, everyone in red, bangy things that everyone moved in unison and a general great spirit! And as you can see it was pouring with rain which I think created even more atmosphere- everyone was given free rain jackets -only in Korea! :)

FUN TIMES!

Bisous

JO

WORLD CUP craziness in SOUTH KOREA!

So here are some pics from E-mart( the big grocery store) with all the soccer festivities including mini soccer goals and people winning things if you score! hehe! It is crazy here at the moment..

As for the opening ceremony-it was tremendous! I was so proud to be South African. I loved the opening ceremony-specially the dung beetle and the large soccer ball! The dancing and colours and diversity ooozed SA! Was so so proud! I think South Africa definitely pulled off a remarkable show and that this World Cup is definitely showcasing to the world what we have to offer: something vibrant and full of energy!

I had a discussion with my teachers yesterday about how much Korea benefited from the Seoul Olympics here in 1988 and I truly feel that South Africa will benefit in the same way-all the footage and broadcasting is just great and portrays our country so well!

My party was great fun-it was so boiling though and my poor guests almost boiled in my tiny place but as you can see fun was had by all! :) As for us four SAFA girls, we belted the national anthem so loudly, it was great! And then man-o-man! That first goal was insane!!!! And I could feel the vibe at home when I phoned Pete in Cape Town about 10 minutes later and all I could here was "olay-olay" and vuvuzelas blowing in the background! :) HAHA! A Mexican guy was supporting too at my place and of course he was delighted when they scored! I do believe our boys deserved to win, but I think the draw was a great way to kick off the World Cup! I was a little peeved with some people who all they could do was complain about soccer- thought it was amusing that they felt they should still come then! Oh and that life like poster of Park Jisung in my photos was stolen by some silly boys from the bakery downstairs, which was funny until the owner pitched at my door demanding it back! Goodness: so the night ended by trying to calm him down and persuade him it wasn't a good idea to call the police! Nevertheless, a good time was had by all, as we ended up at Naerebang as all good Korean nights do.

Although I must say, I felt real homesick when I woke up on Saturday morning! Somehow SK just isn't home.

Bisous

JO

WORLD CUP FEVER IS HERE!

Oh my word! I am absolutely and ridiculously excited!

FIFA WORLD CUP 2010 is here!

I am thrilled! Somehow, in a bizarre way, I feel like I am at home still and able to enjoy the festivities of the World Cup by flying my South African flag high here in South Korea!

SO you be the judge if I am paying enough attention to the World Cup and its beautiful Host Nation:

- I have biltong in my cupboard!

- I bought a south African flag. that is flying over my balcony!

- I did a football lesson with my boys this week & organised a mini soccer tournament for each class for the whole of next week! "Ah teacher-so COOOL!"

- I have recently updated my music selection including mandoza, kurt darren, mango groove and Johnny Clegg and Freshly ground (thanks Marc-you star)

-I taught my gradies all to say: Laaaaduuummmaaa!!!

- I am hosting a Soccer Party tonight for all the foreign teachers and we are serving punch only in South African colours- red (strawberry), yellow (mango), blue (blueberry) and green (green tea flavour-yuck). Cant wait for the opening ceremony and Bafana Bafana to beat Mexico!

-I am going after school to buy face paint and I have printed cool pics off this website

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2010/06/preparing_for_the_world_cup.html to hang around my house!

- I made my high school kids debate whether the vuvuzela should be allowed or banned at the World Cup, using the phrases " In my opinion" , " I argue that..", " I believe that..."

-My teachers class was fun as we looked at the hype of the World Cup and whether Korea represented Asia in 2002 World Cup, just as South Africa is a beaming light for Africa! We also discussed the long term benefits the World Cup will have for my country!

-Then, in my after school class, I also played the kids this great tune of "Waving Flag" by K'Naan

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rSFC5wcLH4Q

- I have read every possible article about World Cup online and I am very familiar with the FIFA site!

-On my fridge is a match schedule for the whole tournament!!

-Then I taught my little student, Seong, who I talk to everyday on the bus about ZAKUMI! :)

-And Oh boy I have just received my parcel from home-(thanks mom)! Lovingly wrapped with a vuvuzela small blower thingy, a zakumi mascot and none other than a BAFANA BAFANA football jersey!

NOW all we have to do is: celebrate in this wonderful game called football, in a magnificent country SOUTH AFRICA!!!

AYOBA, MZANZI!

Quoting my brother Robbie: "Let the celebrations begin!"

VIVA SOUTH AFRICA!

A little catch up about my week from a coffee shop in Seoul

"This week has been another great one", I think as I sip on a caffe latte in a random little coffee shop in Seoul that is dimly lit and playing some catchy jazz. It is decorated with gorgeous maroon and green sofas with artsty fartsy lights hanging all around! I have decided to make a mission to the "Korean Beverly Hills"area of Seoul, according to my travel guide. This area is called Apujeong, situated south of the Han River. After 20min of walking with my backpack in the beautiful heat, I have given up my mission of finding Dosan Park described as "chic and bustling with beautiful, young people of Seoul". Instead, a quiet cool coffee shop will do for now for this sweaty,tired and satisfied traveller. Anway, some reflection and updates are needed:

Election Day: Wednesday was Election day! (Or eRection day as my one teacher told me-it was difficult not to burst out laughing) Chen and I had had a wonderful day in gangchon! It is the first stop on the bus on the way to Seoul. SO it is just outside of Chuncheon, but it feels like you are in Mpumalanga somewhere. The greenery that Summer has brought is just utterly beautiful. Winter seemed so dull, grey and miserable that having such a contrast now is rejuvenating. Gangchon is where Chen used to teach last year. It is a tiny city with actual rice paddys and farms. Along with the greenery, the change in season has brought out all the bicycles and quad bikes for tourists like myself to enjoy!

First up was a tandem bicycle! Oh boy- it was such fun! My-o-my! I have always wondered what it must be like to cycle together. The best analogy for tandem cycling is probably ballroom dancing. You have to be on the same wave-length, you have to move in time, you have got to trust the one steering (leading) you and most of all, you just have to go with the flow! I haven't laughed so much in a while! We cycled all the way up to the bicycle parking spot and then walked up to a magnificent waterfall. I love people watching at such locations.My particular favourite at this tourist spot was a group of old ladies posing in front of a waterfall with their rather dashing,long-haired young tourist guide. They were giggling like my high school gals!

We dropped off the bicycle and then decided the quad bikes looked like such fun, that we hired one of those too for an hour! The thrill of the engine roaring was exhilarating, as we bounced over dust roads along the Han River and rice fields. YEEEHAAA seemed to be the only appropriate word to scream. Another day I will soon not forget!

Yesterday: Definitely another one to remember! It was the Pre-World Cup South African Braai at the Nanji Camping Ground in Seoul. Maybe it was the Vuvuzelas, the bright SA flags all around, the Mandoza music and SA dancing, the biltong, the braais or the koeksisters, but it felt like we were in South Africa. This event attracted over 600 + South Africans from all over Korea. The rainbow nation was indeed present-whites, blacks, coloureds, Koreans who've married South Africans and even people wanting to be South Africans. After my cultural identity crisis I had a few weeks ago, I felt this event really showed me the unity that South Africans do share- PASSION! Whether it is passion for music, boerewors, dancing, koeksisters, talking about rugby or just chilling out- South Africans have something special and we must be proud of it. Of course, the lamb chops and biltong I bought at an exorbitant price were worth every last scrumptious morsel. YUM! Chen also tried his first piece of African Sausage-boerewors and really enjoyed it! The best part of the day was when everyone got together and sang "Enkosi Sikelela". Dit was regtig 'n lekker dag! AYOBA!!!

And then a mission to Hongdae was in order for MISSION: ASHLEY's SURPRISE BIRTHDAY. Joe-her boyfriend-had been plotting this for weeks and I was second commando in charge of organising all the peeps! It went off swimmingly. She was convinced up until the last moment that they were going to see a play! He led her surreptiously down the stairs to Nolita's -an Italian restaurant and before she could question his motives: Wham Bam: SURPRISE! So endearing. :)

Today: Sunday 6 June, I need to make my way back to Chuncheon before another week of fun! I am doing soccer world cup and construed a crazy soccer field board game for my boys which I hope will go off well! My coffee is now finished... I must go...

Bisous

JO

My address!

Here is my address for my school! Finally got it in Korean and English!

If anyone is feeling awfully kind, a bar-one, some chocolate or a

post-card would be fabulous!

Only kidding! But cool to have an address on the other side of the world!

대한민국 강원

춘천시 사농동 82번지

소양중학교

Soyang Middle School

82, Sanongdong,

Chuncheon

Gangwon-

South Korea

I think I am off my rocker!

I have just signed up for a 10km race! Goodness gracious! And got my teacher to help me plan a 20 day running programme to get me in shape. He is a really good marathon runner, so lets hope I can do it! Here is the website of the race:

http://www.jinjumarathon.com/

I am not completed surprised by my irrational decision-considering the week I have been having!

Last week Thursday, my one boy in grade 5 managed to fall in one of my running games during a lesson, which resulted in a broken arm! It was rather awful! I just froze too! Didn't exactly know what to do...

Then, I managed to land myself on the front page of the "Soyang Special"-the new English paper of my Boys Middle School, along with a simple interview about South Africa. The days of Girls' High school newspaper springs to mind-except now I am that silly teacher posing awkwardly and saying ridiculously mature things! How did I grow up so fast?

Mime festival was next on the list of "off my rocker" as we stayed up both Friday and Saturday evening until 4am watching crazy cool shows, admiring enthralling mimes, listening to Spunky SKA bands playing, being bedazzled by the entertaining outfit changing Magician, dancing to trance music, eating melon ice-creams, roaring with laughter at a rather plump (to say the least) Japanese woman doing the full monty and much more! Good fun was had by all!

Sunday was spent at Nami Island-a little break-away paradise just outside from Chuncheon! It is a 6km circumference island near Gapyeong. There are beautiful gardens, cool random art pieces and much more-including a little train like the one I used to ride when I was a kid at Scottborough! Apparently the whole of Chuncheon thought it would be a good idea to go too, as the place was packed!I could have quite honestly spent the entire day there reading a book under a tree, but unfortunately another week at school was calling! A re-visit is in order!

I also ordered a whole lot of meat from the BILTONG GUYS ( South African boys who have capitalized on the lack of good SA meat here in Korea and are now selling as their name suggests BILTONG and other meat) for the Nanji Pre-World Cup Braai that is happening in Seoul this weekend! I still cannot believe I paid R120 for 250g of biltong! It better be damn good!

I manged on Monday to convince my teacher that a tournament soccer match should be played during my English lessons so that the boys get a true feel for the World Cup! I am so in the FIFA fever I have decided to dedicate 3 weeks of lessons to it! WHOOP WHOOP! I am going to love it and I'm sure kicking a ball around will be more than fine for the boys instead of a proper English class for a day!

And then last night in my mission mode to get fit, I ran out of my very cool apartment and as my hectic techno door closed behind me with a beeping noise- I realised I had locked my keys inside! Unfortunately, they have not yet made doors that remind owners to bring their very much needed keys along! Just as well, Christine my co-teacher had a spare one. So, an hour of car watching later, a melon ice-cream and a drink later, I was able to disengage my security- protected-cool-gizmo- way-too-techno door latch thing!

OH and as if that isn't enough, I get told today at school, my lesson will be filmed! EEK! I seemed ok with it, but my kids for some reason swallowed their voices as soon as they saw the cameras. So the lesson was spent painstakingly trying to get any kind of response from them.

oh well,I now am off to finish off more admin-banking,posting letters and having my haircut! Lets hope that turns out better than my week!

BISOUS

JO!