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By Marty, December 28, 2011 10:35 pm

Another Christmas in Korea – certainly not the worst Christmas I’ve ever had.  I really wanted to come home but a lack of vacation, high airline prices and it jsut wasn’t gonna happen.  I made the best of it and MyeongHee and I went to Dee’s house for a Christmas pot-luck feast.

I’ve probably babbled on in the past about some of the benefits of living overseas. Forgive me if you’ve heard this before, but one of the cool things about being here is all the other teacher’s I’ve met from other parts of the globe.  Native English speakers are in high demand in Korea and they come from the USA, Canada, England, Scotland, Ireland, Australia, South Africa, New Zealand and probably a few other places I can’t remember. Anyway, this Christmas since it was a pot-luck dinner I got some grub that is traditional Christmas fare in other lands.  Nick is from England and made yorkshire pudding. I’d heard the name before, and I would have thought of it as like any other pudding we eat in America. Not so. It’s really a biscuit – a light and fluffy biscuit – that is then ladled over with gravy until it’s “sogified.”  That was awesome.  Arielle, another Brit, made Christmas figgy pudding. No figs, but various dried fruit. It was almost like a fruit cake, but wetter, more alcoholic and way richer. Especially after it was drenched in brandy and lit on fire.  Kimberly brought Scottish stuffing. It was good, but I like Mom’s stuffing better.   Dee made lots of roast chicken, gravy and potatoes and I brought bbq sausage for a little Texas flare.  Everyone brought a bottle of wine and we spent the day eating (all day, literally) and drinking.

It wasn’t a fabulous Christmas being away from home, but it was made a whole lot better with the good friends I have here. Despite being 10,000 miles from our various homes, we  made a family holiday a lot of fun for us.

Once home, I tried to call everyone, but apparently so did everyone else. I use Skype, a computer based program that let’s you call for just pennies a minute over computer networks.  I tried several times Sunday night and early Monday (late Sunday morning back home) and I couldn’t get through. Luckily, Jessica figured things out and called me on her mom’s home phone (no calling card – must’ve been expensive) so I got to talk to my girls.

So now that the big holiday is passed, I learned that I do get some vacation after all. I’m taking vacation on January 20th, which is just before Lunar New Year, another big Korean holiday. I’ll add those holidays into my vacation and get a whopping two weeks to come home.  I’ll arrive home on Saturday the 21st of January and won’t have to go back until Sunday morning on the 5th.   Not as good as last year’s six weeks home, but two weeks paid is a good deal.  Flights are much cheaper then, too.

Not much else to report, so I’ll sign off.

See you in Dallas in January!

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By Marty, December 12, 2011 10:56 am

Not much going on here….which is why I haven’t written lately.  It’s work-home-sleep-repeat for days on end.  These days, I’m not even working very much. I bring home a full salary – as much as any other teacher working full time, but I work only 19 hours a week.  Lots of time to read books, do some programming, write an article or two for my Ulsan website and generally slack off. I’d work more, but it’s difficult to find part time teaching gigs to fill the gaps in my existing schedule. Mostly, it’s 1pm-5pm with a couple of early morning business classes and a couple of evening private lessons.

We haven’t done much else as I’m trying to put back some money for my eventual return to the states. Previous years, we were able to save some decent coin. But this year has been harder. DongHyun started university in the spring and so we’re paying for that, while I’m still paying for Teri’s student loans and some back taxes I owed.  But we’re not making as much these days, either. MyeongHee’s hair shop hasn’t been near as busy – a new high rise apartment opened up next to her shop in 2009 and this year a new hair salon opened on the retail floor of the apartment building. She’s still making a profit, but we lived off her cash-only business and we socked my salary in to the back. I’m having to take my salary and pay a bit more for living and less in the bank these days.   She’d like to move her shop to a better location, but that takes both money and time. And with the plan to head back to the US in 2013 with her following in 2014 moving her shop just wouldn’t make sense. So, we live within our means and save what we can and plan for brighter days later.

In the meanwhile, I’ve lost a lot of weight. I’m close to 210lbs – down from nearly 240 earlier this year. The size 40 jeans I was wearing don’t fit and even the smallest size I own – size 36 – are a little big. Not sure why I’m losing weight as I haven’t been riding the bicycle since summer.   Still not a skinny boy, but I look a lot less fat than I did in the spring when I was in the U.S.

On Saturday, we had a total lunar eclipse here in Asia. In America it was not visible but we had clear skies and a great view as the Earth’s shadow passed over the moon and left it a very reddish tint.  It was directly overhead, so we had to watch from outside in the cold. We drank schnapps  and ate sweet potatoes  to keep us warm. I took a lot of pictures, but my camera just isn’t good enough to take really breathtaking shots. I did get this one that came out pretty decent, just towards the last 20-25% of the eclipse before it went all red. After that, my camera wouldn’t focus on the dim, red moon.

No plans for Christmas other than to stay warm. Both Christmas and New Years fall on a Sunday, which means that we won’t get any extra days off here.  But I hope everyone back home has a grand time over the holidays.

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By Marty, November 23, 2011 12:43 pm

I really wish I could be home this year for Thanksgiving. I haven’t had a decent turkey dinner with all the trimmings in years. Although that would just be the cherry on top, so to speak. I really miss my family and friends.  I’ll try to call sometime over the holidays, but it’s going to be tough to do it while everyone’s together – 15 hour time zone difference makes mid-afternoon America an early morning thing here.

I’ve decided that unless something spectacular happens between now and then I won’t be coming home for Christmas. Flights are just too expensive. I get 10 days vacation, but so does everyone else and the prices are jacked up from mid-December through mid-January. If I can swing it, I’ll defer my vacation until spring and get a cheaper flight. If that doesn’t work, I may just stay until early 2013 when the lease is up on our apartment and I’ll move back to America. Of course, that all depends on the economy in the US – and that’s anyone’s guess as to what that will be like.

This weekend is another kimchi weekend at the mother-in-law’s house. Cabbages are on sale all over the vegetable markets in town. It’s also MyeongHee’s mom’s birthday, so we’ll go up on Saturday evening, have a small party and then make kimchi.

This past weekend was a climbing fest in Munsu. The Korea on the Rock climbing group folks came into town and replaced a bunch of old rusted hardware on the mountain so that future climbing is safe. I personally took off a few terribly rusted anchors and replaced them with shiny new stainless steel chains. Then we climbed that route, which we hadn’t done in years because of the rotten condition of the anchor.  Here’s a link from the KOTR folks with more details and pictures.

The one the left is the old crusty one, and the new stuff on the right. The bolt on the left was a little rusty but still solid and another crew will come out in the next week or two to replace that. They were having trouble with the charge on the drill battery running out before it should have, so not enough bolts were drilled. Crappy anchors removed, the climb is tons safer than it was.
Again, any climbers wanting a tour of Korea would be well advised to plan a trip next year. After that, you’ll have to find your own way around as I hope to be back in America.

That goes for the rest of you, too: of all my family and friends back home, and all the years I’ve been here, only two friends have ever come to visit Korea, Mark in 2007 and Kim in 2005. We’ve got a spare bedroom so we could put you up and give you the $2 dollar tour. 2012 is likely the last chance to visit this place and get a guided tour.

A few pictures from this weekend:

The crew works diligently to remove old anchors on top of a 33 meter route

Late in the afternoon, the sunset turned things magically orange

My trusty climbing partners wait for me to finish replacing an anchor

Anywho, not much else going on here. My Thanksgiving celebration will likely be no more than drawing a picture of a roast turkey on the blackboard and explaining the holiday that is this week. Guaranteed to get a million questions about what turkey tastes like since they don’t eat much of it here. Few people have ovens at all since most Korean meals are either grilled or pan cooked. The few that do are not large enough to prepare a bird of that size. And besides, they like their meat with scads of red pepper, and I’m not sure that would even taste good.

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By Marty, November 14, 2011 7:59 pm

After four rainy weekends in row we finally had a nice weather weekend. I took advantage of the sunshine and went  up to Munsu for a couple of climbs. I wish I would have done more than the three short routes I did, but all that rain gave me a cold.

The dogs had a great time running around on the mountain, although it wasn’t as much fun or them as last time when we saw the goats up there. Lots of goat poop all around the trails, but we didn’t see the goats.  On the way back down the mountain I asked the old monk about the goats. He told me that they were neither his goats nor the farm down in the valley. They’re wild goats! They’re bugging him, leaving pellets all around his mini-temples and shrines. So he encouraged us to catch them and eat them.

SaTang relaxes between climbs

Both dogs are snack hounds, waiting for a handout

Hunting goat might be something fun to do next weekend. There is a large group of climbers from around Korea coming to our mountain for a route-repair weekend. Korea on the Rocks, and an initiative group that sprung from it have a yearly program to preplace old worn out climbing hardware on only a couple of mountains per year. Munsu got two of the four projects this year and the routes are looking spectacular – no more sketchy bolts or anchors. They have done a great job so far and next weekend there will be even more of our 70+ routes cleaned up. KOTR’s website is a great resource for climbers in Korea (284 separate climbing locations in this small country. And for my climbing readers back in Texas – it’s a must-read before hitting the walls out here in kimchi land – and this might be my last year to give you a tour of Korea and a sofa to sleep on.

Or maybe a full bed.  MyeongHee’s son, DongHyun went down to Busan today for his military medical fitness test. Not sure what what the outcome was, but I’m betting he’s fine.  He’s a healthy young man. They say once the physical is done, they’ll send a letter detailing when to show up for military service. We predict early next year. He’s already gone 5 of 7 days a week up in Daegu at the university. Once he goes in the Army, however, he’ll have just a few short trips home thoughout his 2 year stint.

Yesterday, we went to Ulsan Grand Park. It was a beautiful sunny day and there were lots of people in the park. I guess everybody else was enjoying the weather after the crap weekends we’ve had.

We found a nice maple tree in the park for a picture

or two or three. Hard to get the dogs in the shot

MyeongHee poses next to a large praying mantis

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By Marty, November 6, 2011 8:31 pm

Make that 4 rainy weekends in a row. This is getting a little ridiculous. For four weeks now it’s been sunny and brilliant blue skies all week and then its rained on the weekend.  Sad weather.

Fortunately, I have lots of movies to watch and books to read. Not much to do outside.

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By Marty, October 31, 2011 10:29 am

For three weeks in a row the weather has been gorgeous. Clear blue skies. Cool, crisp nights. Except for the weekends. Monday through (mostly) Friday, we’ve had awesome weather. Saturday and Sunday and sometimes even Friday, we’ve had gloom, rain and cold.

Consequently, we haven’t done much to write about.

Today is Halloween, and since it is on a Monday, it’s going to be a non event. Halloweens that fall on a weekend are generally observed, but those that fdall on weekdays get lost in the shuffle. Korean schools are loath to do much about the quasi-holiday anyway, but on a weekday, especially Monday, they will avoid it like the plague.  No parties tonight as there would be on a weekend, and wasn’t even aware of any this past weekend.  We stayed home and watched TV and read.  I did some work on Ulsanonline.com and added a new bus search program for the dorks that ride buses.  Big whoop.

These days, it’s work, home, eat, sleep, repeat.  Not that that’s bad, but it’s a little monotonous. Saving money by not doing things that cost money isn’t a bad option, either.

Hopefully, more news, and more fun news, later.

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By Marty, October 17, 2011 11:36 am

Fortunately, the title is not in reverse. But Fall weather here being as fantastic as ever, has started a little late in the climbing seasons for us. Just been too busy with other projects but once out on the mountain it was something I knew I was missing. We hadn’t been up on the cliffs since May and I was a little worried about getting back into the sport. As usual, though, my fears were unfounded and I climbed like the old man that I am – well – for an old dude.

With fall brings a new crop of teachers to Korea for the teaching season and there are always some new climbers. This time a few who wanted to try so badly they’d been studying youtube videos and reading books on how to in order to start well. And well they did. Made me feel a little old not doing the hard routes the younger ones were attempting. Still, I know my limits and abilities and pride makes for a hard fall should I have attempted them.

Sore today, but it’s a good sore.

Climbing pals, from right, Dee, Kelly, Trent, Nick, Matt and Julia. My two dogs SaTang, Sparkey and Dee's dog Corker came, too but couldn't get them all in the shot

I’ve been climbing on this mountain so many times I that I usually don’t bring my camera any more. I thought today might be different. I brought it to the top of one route so I could take a panorama shot.

A panorama from Munsu. Best viewed clicking the photo to get the full size as it is 6418x2437 pixels. This view is looking straight eastward toward the ocean with downtown Ulsan on the left

Of course, once you’re climbing with a camera, the obligatory shoe shot must take place.

The Shoe Shot, from the top looking down on my belay partner, Trent, with Dee and Kelly watching

If climbing were the only adventure, that would be good enough. But there’s always something that is surprising here. Even after nearly six years in Korea I’m still surprised. Three hours in to climbing all three dogs began to bark wildly at something down the mountain. It’s not unusual for Koreans to forage in the mountains for nuts – chestnuts are plentiful. We all thought that’s what the ruckus was for as there was more noise in the bushes than a squirrel or even a deer would raise. Nope. All wrong. A trio of goats. Although they could be from the farm (far below in the panorama shot) that’s a long way for a set of goats to wander.  I took a few shots of them while they browsed for leaves and ignored the barking dogs.

Goats on the mountain below and around the climbing cliffs.

Once we spotted the goats and source of the ruckus, we noticed goat poo all over. I though we had been looking at raccoon poo or even deer poo, but this was too plentiful for those. On the back side away from the climbing there were plentiful piles, leading us to believe that perhaps our friend the monk has started raising them near his mini-temple.

Lanterns adornd the paths near the monk's mini-temple

After climbing, we all went back into town for a few cold beers. I took a few of the new climbers down in my car, but Dee was on her motorcycle. She packed Corker in a small bag and rode down with her sniffing the breeze. Corker, by the way, is litter-mate to my dog Sparky and offspring of SaTang.

Dee and Corker, ready to ride

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By Marty, September 14, 2011 8:30 pm

This past weekend was Thanksgiving in Korea. Another weekend on the coast in Pohang with the in-laws. Things are somewhat better these days in the little fishing village, and in some ways, they’re not. MyeongHee’s younger brother brought an old sofa to the house so now there’s a place to sit that’s not on the floor. It’s a scruffy old thing and they’ve put it on the enclosed patio so it’s a little cool or hot there, depending on the weather. Still, it’s nice to have a cushioned placed to sit my butt. There’s also intermittent wi-fi in the village, which means I can get some decent traffic on either the handphone or laptop. It’s intermittent, but last year it was non-exististent, so it’s gotten better.   Just in case, I brought my laptop (the one I bought in America this spring) with me loaded with a couple of movies to watch. I also planned to do some web design work on it, but since all there was was a sofa, the ergonomics was just too rough and I gave up trying to do any work. Best to leave that stuff for a desk back home. The movies were fine, though, and it’s nice to watch something in my own language. Usually the TV is on anything but an English language show during the holidays.

This year  the neighbors were a little noisy. Apparently they have a problem with wild hogs coming into their crops and tearing things up. So they fired sound cannons every few minutes, night and day. Not as loud as a rifle shot but louder than a pistol shot. All day.  And all night.  It was tough sleeping through that.

Usually the family lays around watching TV, sleeping or maybe playing video games. MyeongHee’s brothers like to go fishing and they’re gone most afternoons. This time they decided they wanted to play “Chok Bal” which is a Korean game that’s a cross between volleyball and soccer. You have to handle the ball like soccer – feet, knees, chest or head – no hands but instead of goals you have to get it over a center net like volleyball. I’ve seen it played often enough but never played it before until this weekend. It was actually a lot of fun. I played with MH’s older brother while her son and nephew and her younger brother played opposite. I sucked, but not too bad for my first game. My foot techniques were rough but I have solid head-in skills.

While us boys played manly sports, MyeongHee had fun with GaEun. She’s a little over two and talking constantly. She picks up whatever anyone says – whether it’s someone in the family speaking Korean or me speaking English. I had her saying quite a few things that they were amazed at – little ones just suck up the new words, so it’s not so magical.

And of course it wouldn’t be a Korean thanksgiving without visiting the grave of MyeongHee’s father. Koreans, like most Asians, are big on ancestor worship and hold ceremonies on the anniversary of their death and on major holidays. We do one at the house and another at the grave about an hour away in the military cemetery.

The ceremony is as much about pleasing the spirits or ghosts of the deceased as it is about showing respect. MH’s older brother always lights a cigarette at the grave and let’s burn for the old man’s ghost. I have yet to see his take a drag on it.  They also lay out food on the grave and put a spoon and chopsticks in it so the spirit can take a few bites. Ain’t seen that happen either. But I play along because to do otherwise would offend them and its harmless. I do my bows, eat a bit of the food, and drink some of the rice wine but only because it makes them happy.

Just before we left Ulsan to go to Pohang I ran into a little trouble with the security guard at the apartments. Everyday I take the two dogs out for a walk and let them pee or poo. I always carry baggies and always clean up after them, but two of the three guards never hesitate to bitch about the dog poop left on the ground. I have no idea which poop or where as I clean up, but that doesn’t stop them from bitching. On Saturday one dog was taking a crap and I had the bag in hand waiting while she finished.  One guard came up and started bitching about me cleaning up and I’d had enough. I snapped and yelled and told him to fuck off and shut the hell up (all in Korean, of course) and that I always clean up.  By then Sparky was finished and she went over near him to see what he was making so much noise about. Then he kicked her. That’s when I lost it and I kicked the shit out of him in the gut.

In Korea there’s no such thing as self defense. Nor is there just cause for smacking the crap out of someone. Whoever is hurt more goes to the hospital and the other party pays, regardless of why or who started it. Stupid ass way of doing things, but there are a lot of stupid ass things here. And some good, too. I wouldn’t stay if there weren’t.  So anyway, the guard starts making a bunch of shit up about how I punched him and blah blah. He called MyeongHee to bitch at her because he knows I’ll ignore him. He threatened to go to the hospital but I don’t think he did. I apologized but he wouldn’t accept it. SO far, it’s been 4 days and nothing, so I suppose he’s dropped it.

While in Pohang with the family,, they were all very supportive.  Both brothers said not to worry, which means should anything happen, they’d back me up – either physically or financially. That was reassuring and I felt better.   One of the things that really does bug me about this place is the older men. They have a hammer lock on society and are given respect by anyone younger whether they deserve it by western standards or not. Quite often they like to throw their weight around and bitch at people and most acquiesce and bow and move along. I don’t and it’s a continual pain in the ass with these idiots. And if its not the security guards, its the old man walking along the bike path in the park while the walking path is open. I’m in the wrong for riding where he is, despite the painted signs advising otherwise. And if it isn’t him, it’s the asshole in the big car who thinks he should have the right of way despite the lights or laws in the road. Most younger people and nearly all women are kind and pleasant. But the older men in this land give me a major case of the red ass.

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By Marty, September 5, 2011 11:26 am

I posted a a small blurb earlier last week on facebook, but I know not everyone reads that junk. It’s getting less and less interesting and more full of crap than is sometimes worth it. But anyway, I digress. On to the reason for this posting.

I posted a video on my other website, Ulsanonline.com, that is a how-to video for driving in Korea. Having driven in this land for several years (wow, time flies – years, he says!) I’ve seen it all. I thought driving in Mexico was crazy, but the people in this land are certifiably insane when they get behind the wheel of a car.  Wearing body armor while on the motorcycle is not a terrible idea as it’s just plain dangerous.

I started the video with all the intentions of making it an “angry-man-blusters-at-the-Koreans” sort of theme. But half way through editing, I took another tack and decided that satire would be better. Since that website is very popular with the foreigners, I worked in the satire with the new comers in mind. Every summer and spring we get a new crop of teachers coming over for a year of teaching English and this year we seem to have a bumper crop. Some of my partners have been writing along the theme of “getting acquainted with Korea” and thought I’d structure my outrage in the same way.  However, my humor apparently works for newcomers and old-timers alike. It’s gotten quite a few plays and several people have commented on how much they laughed.

There are a half-dozen or so theories on why Koreans are such shitty drivers, and I could pontificate on a few on them. Probably not worth it, though, unless you’ve been bere, are here or are coming here. The Korean mindset is a curious thing that defies translation and sometimes description and must be experienced first hand to thoroughly enjoy – or despise – your choice, as foreigners tend to fall into either category.  Just check out the video and get a glimpse of the motoring madness that I deal with daily here.

More later. Hope everyone is well.

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By Marty, August 29, 2011 11:59 am

Well, sort of. At least that’s what Koreans like. But coming from the land of a billion singing rooms where people go to sing and drink every night, this is no great surprise.

This is MyeongHee’s son, DongHyun, performing with a group from his health club in an “original indoor jacky spinning performance.”  That literally what it says in Korean behind the performers. I have no idea what jacky spinning is, but I’m guessing that loud music and exercise is part of it. It was so loud, in fact, that the audio simply crushed the microphone in my camera. Just about all you hear is the bass and I edited it heavily with my movie tools to make it a bit less like torture to listen to. To be fair, it sounded much better live than on camera. The performance, done in the middle of a large shopping plaza, drew quite a crowd. The people watching was almost as much fun as the performance.

Jacky Spinning!

DongHyun is the one with the ball cap and Angry Birds shirt

Dance, dance machine!

DongHyun has been home all summer and has been hitting the health club twice a day. Part of that was practicing for this performance and partly because next year he’ll do his two years in the military and needs to transform himself from stick boy to something a little more rugged.  He’s put on a little muscle in two months, although I have few pictures of the before era to prove it.

The entire performance was almost an hour of dance-cum-cycling. Interesting, danceable and even enjoyable. But nothing I’d go out of my way to see again. More likely, an extended advertisement for the health club. DongHyun had fun doing it and practicing with the other members, most of which were older women. After the performance, MyeongHee and I went to a birthday party with some friends while DongHyun went out to party with his dance troupe. I hope the older women jumped his bones.

Anyway, it’s almost September and now he’s off to university again. MyeongHee are once again empty-nesters for a while.

Hope everyone else is doing well.

Marty