Take me out to the ballgame

Last week I took a trip down to the port city of Busan.  This is the second largest city in South Korea.  I had a five day weekend because of a national holiday called Chuseok.  This holiday is essentially there version of Thanksgiving.  Everyone gets together as a big family and they eat food.  Plus in Korea they do take this time to visit graveyards and pay respects to their ancestors.  I guess you can say they are combining both Thanksgiving and "dia de los muertos" into one holiday.  When visiting the graveyards they trim plants and clean up the immediate area around the location.  Then they do also leave out food and drinks which is very similar to "dia de los muertos."  As foreigners we basically have a long weekend and so I was able to head down to Busan and see some of that big city.

One of the things I was able to see was a Korean baseball game.  In Busan the team is known as the "Lotte Giants."  So a couple friends and I headed to "Lotte" stadium to catch a game.  Here in Korea you are allowed to bring anything into the game.  This includes drinks and food.  So I did see people bringing in boxes of food and drinks to enjoy during the game.  We ended up getting tickets right next to third base for 12,00 won a ticket.  It isn't the closest I have been to home plate but we still were real close.

Now in Korea baseball where you sit in the stadium is an important fact in who you will be cheering for during the game.  For this stadium the third base side is actually the visiting teams dugout.  So we were cheering for the "NC Dhinos" who were playing the "Lotte Giants."  At the beginning of the game they did the Korean National Anthem but then nothing else. No first pitch which they usually do have at most of the Korean baseball games.  Obviously baseball is played the same with a little different style.  For example there were a lot more attempts at running while batting (think Ichiro even though he is Japanese) during the game then a typical American baseball game.  The particular game I watched was a back and forth game.  In fact it came down to the bottom of the ninth for the home team to win.  Baseball the game itself didn't change however there was some big differences between a Korean baseball game and American baseball game.

These differences could mainly be seen in how the crowd reacted to the ballgame.  So how it works is that while your team is up to bat there is constant chants and cheering.  These chants were done in unison and there was a person who was the ring leader for all of these chants.  In fact for the home team they had cheerleaders and a whole dance crew to lead the chants.  Where I was sitting (visitors side) it was one of the spectators who was in charge of all the chants.  It did feel more genuine on my side because we didn't need the extra motivation from a dance crew.  The chants were in Korean but some were universal because both side of the fans were using them.  Another difference was during a pitching change for the home team the pitcher did get a ride from the bullpen to the mound in a car.  Now I am not sure if that is only for that team or maybe it could be a give away, but either way it was kind of crazy.  Another interesting thing that happened was one time when the grounds crew was cleaning the field, both teams had everyone playing catch in the outfield.  This random break (in the middle of the sixth inning) lasted for about ten minutes and then the game resumed.  One thing that was a little disappointing was they didn't do a seventh inning stretch. So at a ballpark in America I would get a hot dog or a pretzel as something to snack on during the game.  Well in Korea they didn't have those items at the ballpark so instead I had some dried squid.  I have had it before on many different occasions, but I figured at a Korean baseball game I could have something that is definitely Korean.

Overall it was a  fun experience but did kind of remind me of a minor league ballgame atmosphere instead of the top level of play.  The season is pretty much over and they have a mini playoff.  They have less teams and so the playoff is against the top four teams.  This upcoming week there is midterm testing for some of the days.  I still am unsure of what days exactly but for those days I won't be teaching.  Plus usually it does mean we will have half days.  I need to plan a couple lessons for tomorrow.  Will write later.
 

Bag with drinks to bring into the stadium

The car used during a pitching change for the home team

Korean style snack bar

Squid at the ballpark 

  

First Responders Across Countries

So this picture here is in the English room at my school: 

It is one of the blinds that does keep the sun out when it is down (hence it being a blind).  Anyway there are seven total blinds and the pictures are of different landmarks including the Eifel Tower, London Tower Bridge, Statue of Liberty, the Twin Towers, etc.  It is safe to assume that these blinds have been here for some time now and that the various landmarks portrayed could have changed.  In fact today there is currently one new tower instead of the two pictured above.  It has been twelve years now since that horrible day and in that time frame a lot has changed.  I did ask my higher level students if they do know about that day in history.  Now keep in mind these kids for one aren’t from the United States and also were babies when it did happen.  Some of them did know while others did not. 

Each day I do see the blind it does make me think of all the people who were lost that day.  The various different types of first responders and citizens trying to help everyone out.  At the same time though it does allow me to think how lucky everyone is in the United States to have such dedicated individuals willing to help out. 

Here in Korea that isn’t the case.  Since talking to some co-workers back when we were having the fire drill it was interesting their reaction to the firefighting profession.  Here in Korea it is something you do not want to do and in fact the profession here is kind of looked down upon.  Basically if you are a firefighter than you are at a lower status than some other people.  Instead of being a firefighter it is better to be a business person, a doctor, a teacher, a general manager, or an engineer.  I know throughout the United States that isn’t the case.  You can go into any elementary school and some of the kids there would want to be firefighters when they grow up.  I personally have never seen a fire here so maybe they have nothing to do.  At the same time there is a lot more things firefighters do on a daily basis (at least in the United States). 

So the outlook on the fire profession here is different but what about the law enforcement.  Law enforcement here is in kind of the same boat as the fire profession.  It is something that isn’t a dream for people to pursue.  From what I can tell they basically are the individuals who didn’t do well in school or have no other job prospects and so they end up being a police officer.  A funny part to this though is that crime in Korea doesn’t happen.  Now I am not making the place like a utopia, but since living here I have not heard of anything illegal happening or seen the police have to deal with anything (the ‘crime’ numbers also back this up).  I know some people who leave their apartments unlocked all the time and nothing has been stolen.  Now I don’t think this idea of no crime is because of the great work the law enforcement does here.  Instead I would claim it is more of the culture and Confucianism playing a role in society.  Koreans have a very structured society and so I think that is what keeps the streets free of crime.

I just simply wanted to write showing that between different countries there are different outlooks on people who are first responders.  I guess it is a good thing that I am from the United States since one day I want to be one of these professions.       

"Color Me Rad"

This last weekend I went on a little trip.  This trip took me up to Incheon.  Incheon is a city that is up next to Seoul.  In fact Incheon is considered part of the Seoul National Capital area.  Whenever someone flies into Korea they are in fact flying into Incheon instead of Seoul.  From Incheon to get to the center of Seoul it can take up to an hour considering the amount of traffic.  I was able to take a direct bus up to Incheon so that way I didn't have to deal with the Seoul traffic.  The reason I went up to Incheon was for a little run.

It was a 5 K race and is known as "Color Me Rad."  These runs happen all over the world and it happened to be in Korea this last weekend.  The idea behind these runs is it is a fun run for the people who participate and then the money goes to a local charity wherever it is being held.  The local charity was "The Special Olympics Korea."

 Now the question of why it is called 'Color Me Rad?'  That is because you start off the race with a white shirt and then by the end of the race there is all kinds of color all over you.  This works by every so often you run through these areas where they throw color all over you.  So at the beginning of the race I ran through an orange color, then some ways up it was purple, then blue, then pink, and then finally yellow.  The colors are a powdery substance that is basically corn starch with some other things.  It didn't taste that good.  When running through the area it was really dusty so it was kind of hard to not taste the color.

I was up there with some people that I had met in orientation and we also ran into other people we knew.  Since it is simply a fun run they were letting people start in waves.  We were in the first group and started at nine in the morning.  When we did get back to the finish it was a lot busier with more people.  So I am not sure how many people ended up running but it seemed like a good amount of people.  We plan on running a 10 K in November so I will need to start running more often.

These last couple of posts have been about some fun activities or festivals that I have been able to attend.  I bet the next couple posts will show some more insight into Korean culture.  This week is a normal school week with nothing big happening at school.  At least I don't know about anything big yet, and actually I would find out at the last minute anyway.

Boryeong Mud Festival

This post will talk about a festival that happened earlier in the summer.  I didn’t have a chance to post about it back then because it happened right before going to Thailand, and I was busy getting ready for an English summer camp.  First a little background knowledge.  Before coming to Korea I found out that I was going to be living in the state that I live in now (Chungcheongnamdo).  Once I found this out I did look up the different things that happen around my home state.  I did find out about this particular festival I am going to describe in a minute and I thought it would be pretty neat to go if I have the chance.  About two days before getting on the plane I found out that I will be living in my current city (Boryeong) and that happens to be the location of this particular festival.  Once figuring that out I knew that I would be able to make it to the Boryeong Mud Festival.

This festival takes place for two weeks usually around the end of July and has been going on for fifteen years.  The reasoning behind the festival is because there is natural mud pits somewhere around my city.  This mud is nice for the skin and they compare it to the mud at the Dead Sea (I think the Dead Sea mud was better).  So this festival is held to draw attention to the mud and the health care products that go with this particular mud.  It does happen out at the beach which is about a five minute walk from my school.  The festival started on a Friday night but for that whole week leading up to the festival they were setting up the two stages and everything else that went along with the festival.  Then on Friday the South Korean Black Eagles (air force aerobatic team like the Blue Angels) were practicing it seemed like right over the school.  Plus there was music being played from the stages so the students were pretty distracted. 

The festival basically is a huge party with mud, blow up slides, music performances, Air Force Aerobatic team performances, fireworks, and more mud.  On the weekends there were a lot of foreigners out at the festival.  It was the busiest I have ever seen the beach.  Then during the week (after school I could check it out) it was mainly Koreans.  Since it is in my hometown I was able to go each day.  The first weekend was the Air Force performance and fireworks and so that was pretty neat.  We barely found a spot on the beach.  Then the second weekend it wasn’t as busy but still pretty crazy.  That weekend there were some music performances that I watched.  Plus the whole time there was free mud with paint brushes to get covered in the mud.  Of course the Sea is still right there and was the best way to wash off the mud. 

Overall it was a couple good weeks and with the festival being so close was pretty convenient.  Even though I have played in the mud before it was pretty interesting to have a festival solely for mud.  This week it has been back to school like normal.  I have the same amount of classes as before but different times to teach.  Basically it is about twenty different classes.  The level of the students range from false beginners (act like they know nothing, but in fact know some of it) up to my conversation class where the best English speakers at my school.  Still the highest students I would consider at a low middle school level compared to students in the United States.  This weekend I will be going up to Incheon.  It is right next to Seoul and is actually where the airport is located.  I will be heading up there for a 5k race.  It will be a fun run because it is a "Color Me Rad" run.  I will leave it at that and describe it in another post, but first I need to go to the run.  Attached are some pictures showing the mud festival.  I will write later.  

Beach with no Mud Festival (picture was taken yesterday) 

Still known as "mud plaza" even without the festival (picture was taken yesterday) 

Mud Festival (Taken about the same spot as picture above)

View from English room at school (Can you see the big slides where "mud plaza" is located?)

Before the actual show (picture taken from English room at school)

One of the designs they did at the Mud Festival

Over the water during the performance at Mud Festival

Summer in Korea

Summer in Korea is a different experience than I have ever had anywhere else.  For one thing it is always humid.  Not just a little humid but on average around ninety percent humidity.  The average temperature in the heat of summer (from about June to mid-August) was pretty much a steady ninety degrees Fahrenheit.  That isn’t that hot compared to Arizona, but throw in the ninety percent humidity and then it is pretty bad.  Plus air conditioning in South Korea isn’t constantly on everywhere you go.  The air conditioners here aren’t all central, but instead it is usually wall mounted air conditioners.  At school how it usually works is that during the morning no air conditioners are supposed to be turned on.  After lunch the air conditioners are allowed to be turned on.  The reasoning behind this is they are trying to save power.  I don’t know if anyone is familiar but Korea usually does do rolling blackouts to save energy.  This is especially true this year because some nuclear plants that produce the power have gone off line.  I am not sure exactly why they are no longer working but either way it has been said that there is possibility of rolling blackouts.  They are trying to avoid the whole country from losing power at once.  There haven’t been any blackouts yet, but it wouldn’t surprise me if there were some in the future.     

So over summer camp it was pretty warm.  Luckily I am out by the beach (can see it from my window now) and so that means it is a little bit cooler compared to in town.  During summer camp I did have the windows open and hoping for a breeze.  With no air conditioning in the morning sometimes the students do complain that they don’t want to learn.  I see their argument, but I am always visible hotter even if it isn’t the case.  This is because I sweat a lot easier than Koreans.  This is true for anybody from the West.  I have heard the argument that Koreans don’t have as many sweat glands as people from the West.  I don’t know how true that is but no matter what us foreigners always look hotter because of the sweat.  I am enjoying the summer weather because it isn’t too bad and bearable.  I know that the winter time will be a lot harsher to handle.  

           

Another interesting thing about summer in Korea is the constant noise.  In summer time there is a bug known as Cicadas.  These bugs could possibly live other places, but this is the first time I have heard them.  They are a bug that comes out in the summer to mate.  They are only out during the warmest months.  I have never seen the bug because they are high up in the trees and don’t bug people like a mosquito or fly would.  They simply make noise all day long (usually stop at night around 9:00p.m.).  Someone told me they live underground the rest of their lives and when they are making the noise they will die by the end of the summer.  If that is true that means it is the old male (females don’t make noise) Cicadas that are the soundtrack of summer in Korea.  I read somewhere that some grocery stores play the noise in their music loop that way people will buy watermelon and other summer related items.

It is actually starting to cool down already.  In the morning it is pretty nice.  By lunch time it is kind of warm, but then they kick the air conditioning on.  Fall supposedly happens around the mid to end of September.  Plus fall is a really short season and then it kicks into the bone chilling winter.  Last week was orientation.  Basically we were locked down on this campus and went to classes from about seven in the morning to eight at night.  There wasn’t that good of information on teaching, but I was able to meet some more foreigners.  This week is my first full week back at school with regular classes.  This weekend there is a going away party in another city for a friend I plan to attend.  Plus the weekend of the 6^th of September there is a 5K color run up near Seoul.  Basically it is a 5K race but you need to wear white because people on the side will be throwing color stuff all over us.  Now it is off to play some football (a.k.a. soccer).     I will write later next week sometime.    

Trip to Thailand

So it has been awhile since I have posted.  It was the end of the semester and I had been busy with planning both a Summer Camp and my vacation.  Summer Camp is more like Summer School and for me it was five days long with only teaching from 9:00a.m. to 12:30p.m.  Funny thing about Summer School is that I never had more than two students.  They didn’t want to be at school learning English.  Right after Summer School I took my vacation.  My destination was a country known as Thailand.

I left Seoul, Korea on the morning of August 1^st and ended up in Phuket, Thailand around 11:00p.m.  I did have a long layover in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.  Anybody planning future vacations avoid a long layover at that airport because I was able to walk around the whole airport in ten minutes.  Anyway I did make it to Thailand and right away it was known that I had never been to Thailand before this time.  This is because I tried to get into the taxi on the driver’s side.  In Thailand they drive on the opposite side of the road than in the United States or even Korea.  With driving on the opposite side of the road that means the driver side is actually on the right hand side when looking out the front windshield. After making it to my hotel basically the next morning (it is about 60km from the airport) I went out and found some food.  Even though it was a Thursday night/ early Friday morning there were still a lot of people out on the town.  Now Phuket is actually the name of the whole island and my little area where I stayed is named Patong Beach.  It didn’t matter what day it was there was always people out all night long.  The next day it rained majority of the day.  I was busy seeing the town and making payments on some reservations for scuba diving.

Yep, the main reason for going to Phuket was for the scuba diving.  It was well worth the trip.  Saturday was the first day of diving.  With the company I booked with they picked me up at my hotel in the morning.  We finished picking up more people eventually ending up at the dock (about 30 mins. away with traffic) where the boat is located.  The boat is a pretty good size boat and there were multiple shops using the boat each day.  So the very basic safety briefing (never mentioned about life jackets) and off we go towards that day’s destinations.  While heading out breakfast is served and after every dive there was food served.  Saturday there was still bad weather hanging around from the day before so it was long rolling waves as if we were on the roller coaster.  People were warned and motion sickness medication was offered but there were still some who did get seasick.  All the days diving I didn’t get sick once.  Also with the company I booked it comes with a dive master.  So each day on the ride out to the site I was being briefed with the dive master about the location and the various fish that we might see.  That first day there was one other diver and me with one dive master.  That boat ride was close to two hours and once we did get out to where we were headed it was possible to hide behind the island.  In doing this it was like glass and looking over the side you could see all the way down to the bottom.  We did two dives at this location moving a little bit and then headed backed towards an island we passed on the way out to dive a shipwreck.  Every dive I did throughout my days of diving I did see: schools of fish, banner fish, clown fish, coral, puffer fish, snapper fish, and different tropical fishes that I don’t know the names.  Those fish just listed I basically saw every single dive.  Other notable marine life I saw the first day was a big leopard shark.  She was sleeping on the bottom and was easily 6 feet long and the dive master said she looked pregnant because of how fat she was.

Second day of diving was at a place called Phi Phi islands.  We did two dives there and then one at shark point.  The shark point dive had a strong current that day so a lot of swimming for the last dive of the day.  Ironic thing is I didn’t see any sharks at shark point but instead at Phi Phi.  On one of the dives I saw three black tipped reef sharks.  This was towards the end of the dive so we also saw them while we were on the surface waiting for the boat to pick us up.  Plus the second day I saw a school of barracuda fish, lion fish, sea snake, triggerfish, and a sun starfish.  The third day of diving we went to the same islands as the first day, but we did dive different locations.  That day I had the same dive master as the first day and so we were looking for the leopard shark again.  This is the only day I didn’t see a shark of any type.  Instead saw the fish listed above plus a couple blue spotted rays, a few moray eels, lion fish, scorpion fish (hiding very well and extremely poisonous), triggerfish, and sea urchins.  The fourth and last day of diving was to a completely different location.  This day it was bad weather again and so the rolling waves with more wind so it was crashing more often.  It definitely made it interesting getting back on the boat the whole entire day.  The first dive was on a wreck by the name of “King Cruiser.”  There was no island for protection but the boat was hooked up to a buoy.  This wreck was quite a bit bigger.  For the second dive we ended up doing shark point because it was a little bit more protected but still pretty crazy getting on the boat.  If you didn’t time it right you would be thrown from the ladder and it was best to just be thrown and not try to stay and crash again with the ladder.  The last dive of that day we hid behind an island and did a wall dive.  The current was strong again but we just floated with it and didn’t try to fight it.  That day I saw three bamboo sharks (look like small nurse sharks), four seahorses (of coursing hiding in the coral), eels, lion fish, trigger fish, sea urchins, two colorful lobsters, big sea fans, and three good size squids.  Overall it was some real good diving and I saw a lot.  Only thing that I missed was a turtle.  On one of the days there were a couple divers who did see a hawks bill turtle but I had no luck.  No complaints though and any day of diving even in the bad weather is a good day in my opinion.  I hope the pictures do turn out and that it does make some of you jealous. 

After getting back to the hotel around 6:00p.m. at night I usually had dinner and simply relaxed.  I did try some of the local beer which one of them had an interesting name.  It was called Tiger beer.  It wasn’t the best one but not too bad.  On the boat I did meet this American couple who also live in South Korea too.  They were on vacation too and so one night we went to a show together.  This show was at a place called “Simon’s Cabaret” and in fact it was a lady-boy show.  If you didn’t know this fact before you would have never known the difference.  It was a pg show with a lot of music and a little bit of comedy.  They kept changing the sets and doing something from a different country and so when Korea came up it was pretty funny.  Afterwards we went out on the town and ended up at the Hard Rock Café in Phuket. 

Originally I had planned on doing a jungle trek one of the days while down in Southern Thailand.  I never did it though because it seemed like it was constantly raining.  It is the rainy season and so it wasn’t too surprising.  So I have yet to visit a jungle yet.  I eventually left Phuket on an airplane on Tuesday night going to the big town of Bangkok.  In Bangkok I wasn’t able to see much.  I blame it on something I ate the first night I was there.  Bangkok is the capital of Thailand and is a huge city.  Like I said I didn’t see much.  What I did see was a lot of buildings, a lot of people selling stuff on the streets (clothes, custom made suits, souvenirs), lots of people (both local and foreigners), and a lot of street food vendors.  It did have the big city smell which isn’t that pleasant.  As far as Bangkok goes, maybe in the future I might end up back there but it isn’t on the list of places to visit again.

I ended up back in Korea on the 11^th and back to my house kind of late.  So with visiting one other country I did get four more stamps in my passport (this includes leaving and entering both Korea and Thailand), and some more travel experience in Asia.  Currently I am at work this week but with no students.  It is known as desk warming which isn’t that hard to do with the temperatures in the 90’s and the humidity hovering around 90 percent too.  For the students school will start on this upcoming Monday.  I will only be here for that Monday and then I will need to go to a mandatory orientation which will last for six days.  So I basically miss the first crazy week of school.  I will rest up this week and then get ready for the start of the semester.  I will write later.   

Pictures of Thailand

Motor bikes were all over the place 

A bar game where you race (one at a time)  to hammer the nail in 

I mentioned it rained a lot.  Driving through it wasn't a problem. 

Schools of fish 

It is not knats.  It is a school of small glass fish. 

This isn't photo-shopped.  I ended up in the middle of the school!  

Nemo's cousins Ralph and George.  

Trigger fish.  Can be aggressive so we avoided swimming close. 

Leopard Shark sleeping on the bottom.  If it wasn't sleeping I might not be posting this....

Banner fish

Nudibranch 

Spot known as shark point.  We swam around it a couple times with one tank of air. 

It is hard to tell but it has blue spots.  So it is named a blue spotted ray. 

Some lion fish. 

Close up of another lion fish. 

Lobster that was really colorful. 

I am pretty sure it is called a trumpet fish.   I could be wrong though.. 

Moray Eel 

Another eel but not a moray eel.  It was a lot smaller.  I think it is called the white eyed eel? 

Can you see the seahorse? 

A different seahorse close up