Korea

Lau and I made it to Tongyeong. We've been here a week now. Of course I apologize for the lack of updates.

I've got internet now, but I'm not using it tonight. Tonight, I'm in downtown Tongyeong, a short walk from where I had my first non-spicy food in days: sushi. I'm in what the Koreans call a PC-봉 - pronounced PC /bong/ and translated internet cafe. Except I may be the only person here actually using the internet. All around me high school and maybe college age kids command vast armies in a game I played when I was 12. Starcraft, the best seller from 1996 or 97, has yet to fade in popularity here. Apparently there's three Korean cable channels devoted to broadcasting computer game tournaments and Starcraft players have a shot at celebrity: one champion has a fan base of 500,000 and another named earnings in 2005 of US$200,000 (according to the Wikipedia article on StarCraft).

Speaking of TV, now that I have a "real" job, I feel far less guilt when I crash for a day and just watch reruns. On Sunday I watched almost the entire second season of Prison Break, nearly commercial free. Now I understand the hoopla, and now I'm about ready to put my TV back in the box.

I would actually, but for two reasons: 1) I put the box on the trash pile across the street. The box disappeared; however, the trash remains for the succor of a growing population of flies. How homey. 2) CNN. Yep, CNN. The liberal rag that relies on sensationalism in lieu of accurate, thorough reporting. I can explain: CNN in the US is geared towards the popuation (of course it is -- that's how they profit). CNN for the rest of the world also targets its audience. It's simple business logic. And the most obvious deduction is that US Citizens have the IQ of your average turtle. CNN in the rest of the world employs reporters to cover the news. They expose. Oh, they're still liberal, but a pet rock could detect their bias, so we can forgive them for having one. We all do, anyway. I take that back: BBC might not have a bias. They're reassuringly balanced. They're like the hyper intellectual you danced with in high school who apologized every time they sort of stepped off beat. I split my news-time between the two triliterate stations and I'm feeling pretty well informed.

I meant to say something more about bugs. If you've ever seen a spider and shuddered, don't even consider crossing the ocean to this land. First of all, the mosquitoes are brutal, persistent and thirsty. I kill them willingly, apologizing to Gandhi and Buddha each time. I'm not sure they'd disapprove, All Men Are Brothers aside. I might even be improving my karma by killing those dark agents for malaria. Plus, there's enough of them to go around. The spiders clearly aren't doing their job. Speaking of #@%^*@# spiders. Have you ever taken a forked stick and gathered spider webs to catch dragonflies? Me either. Our spider webs aren't that strong. Our spiders aren't that big.

Yep. In Korea the spiders are so large and so evil, you can recycle their web to make a net strong enough to catch dragonflies. ... They're big. And black. And metallic. Neon green, red and yellow mark them. I'm pretty sure that means, "Poisonous, hah! We're not poisonous. We're chemical warfare."

And my vice principal picked one up like they were cuddly kittens. Yes, they're that large.

"He mentioned his vice principal!" you're thinking to yourself. That's what you're really interested in. My school. Ok, fine. I teach English at a school full of adorable, raucous monsters and gregarious, conniving angels. In every single class someone has asked me if I have a girlfriend. In one class they tried to marry me off to my co-teacher. I told her I was ineligible for a green card seeing as I ask too many questions and that persuaded her to peel her arms from around my neck. No I didn't really say that. Have more faith in me than that.

Mom, I'm engaged. Kidding. Relax.

I teach at two schools in the area. One's rural and fairly poor. The other is fairly urban and rich. Both are populated by the nicest people in the world. Come to think of it, this entire country is nice.

My days consist of four classes in the mornings, lunch and then a few "office hours" in which I flip coins and try to learn Korean. Or watch the dollar regain its former strength. The dollar is stronger now against the Korean Won than it's been in 5 and a half years. Did I tell you when I was in Poland, the Zloty was stronger against the dollar than it had been in years?

Money hates me.

Oh the cockroaches here are huge. And mosquitoes are devouring me as I type, even though I'm inside and surrounded by very distracted prey.

Before class my co-teacher gives me a run through. She leads the first class so I can see what we're aiming for. I lead the next three. She told me today that one of her worst behaved classes has calmed down and learned since I arrived. I'm glad to have such clear feedback that I'm making a positive impact. I've taken advice from Clinton's escapade in Newark and decided to be difficult to please, to instill discipline and respect first, and then to be nice later, once I have them whipped. Hah. Always the idealist.

Our apartments are nice but poorly constructed. Can't wait for the first earthquake. We're a three minute walk to the water, but we're on an inlet, so we're protected from the main bay by a mountain. That means pleasant weather and no tsunamis. I can walk to school in about three minutes. Lau's co-teacher gives her a ride everymorning. We're both pretty happy here, I think.

Time's up. I don't feel like spending another 80 cents to tell you more.