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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, 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

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By Marty, August 8, 2011 4:45 pm

And while it’s not quite a torrent or a flood, it’s become a stream.

A small stream, but a stream nonetheless. Every day there are more and more.

What am I talking about?  My smart phone application, of course, and the revenue stream it is now producing. It’s only been one week, but we’ve already made several sales in several countries including the US, Australia and South Korea.  I added an upgrade late last week so the application can be run in English or in Korean, so teachers here, both English and Korean, might find the product useful.

The really cool thing about the internet is that there are no borders. And no brick-and-mortar stores to increase overhead. I can create in my living room and sell in any country (almost) in the world.  With my business partner moving to Egypt in a few short weeks, I’m hoping he can get things translated to Arabic and open a whole new market for us.  Find me a friend who can translate French, German or Spanish and there are millions more teachers available to purchase.

So, keep ‘em coming folks. Keep buying that app!  Make Marty and Fin rich boys. Or least bring us enough money to buy a new suit. We’re not greedy. At a whopping $3.99US for the application, it’s pretty cheap. But throw enough teachers at it – say a million, worldwide – and we’re buying a yacht!

And if that doesn’t pan out, well, it was good experience to design and write the application. That should be worth something to a tech company back home when I decide to leave this place.

Ta ta for now.

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By Marty, July 24, 2011 9:53 pm

Summer is 2/3rds over and we haven’t been out much. Of course, it hasn’t been much of a summer so far. We’ve only had the air-conditioning on one weekend this summer. Today wasn’t much different. It was actually cloudy and overcast with occassional very light sprinkles. We decided we’d brace the weather and head out to our favorite river picnic area in the mountains.

This is near Seoknamsa, a temple for nuns way up in the mountains. We’ve had a decent amount of rain this summer so the river was still flowing well.

Both the dogs followed me around the stream, mostly on the rocks. SaTang really doesn’t like water so she’d go way around to cross over a 2 foot jump. Sparky is a little more brave, and although she doesn’t like the water much either she was having fun jumping from rock to rock and didn’t care to go around.

The water was actually pretty cold. Not Rocky-mountain snow-melt cold, but cold enough that neither of us wanted to get more than our feet wet. Consequently, when the dogs did get wet, they shivered and shook and MyeongHee wanted to dry them off.

Sparky gets a toweling off while SaTang watches all the other people in the river

All three of my girls pose for a picture

While we were there, we spent some time wandering around the hills and letting the dogs run in the forest. With a little steam worked off, we sat down for a Korean picnic: grilled pork with garlic and red bean paste wrapped in lettuce leaves.  Yum.  Washed it down with a few beers and then settled back to relax against the rocks. MyeongHee had heard about “Angry Birds” a mobile phone game that has become very popular and she spent an hour or so wearing out the battery in my phone.

It was a pretty lazy day, actually, which is just what the Dr. ordered.  July has been really busy with 11 hour days for me. I just picked up another class for August, so that will be almost as busy – the first week is vacation at one of my three jobs, so I’ll only have a split day starting at 10 and finishing at 8:30pm with the entire afternoon off.

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By Marty, June 24, 2011 5:59 pm

No, I’m not on fire. The inferno is the annual motorcycle photo scavenger hunt we do in June.  We had the Inferno last weekend and it was a gas!  Only 22 people this year, smaller than past years, but still just as fun. The idea is to go to as many predetermined points on the map as you can and take a picture of your team there before before time runs out. There are far too many to visit all of them, so planning, navigation and creative pictures count.

Last year, my team won First Place and got a second helmet. This year, I rode with rookies and we took 2nd place and got 75 bucks – way better prize!

Wish I had all the pictures, but the video will have to suffice. My good friend Dee was on the planning committee and she took everyone’s photos and video and turned it into a slick video. Check it out here.

I do have some photos to share. The first is the panorama shot taken at the starting point. Jason has a nice camera and does and automatic, motorized pan so a long line of us can all be in the same shot.

If you look closely, I’m in the photo on both ends. Jason started taking the photo on the left of the line (I’m wearing white shorts) and after he panned his camera past me I ran to the right side and got in for that part, too, on the far right. Who says you can’t be in two places at once? Click the photo to see the details.

This photo is my bike and Andy’s bike. Andy is my teammate and had never driven a car, bike, scooter or motorcycle anywhere in the world and decided to learn in Korea. Our scooters must’ve been separated at birth as the plates are one number transposed. What are the odds.  Ryan’s girlfriend, Rocy, shows a nice smile for the camera.

two bikes, almost one license

Anyway, it was a great day. Looking forward to more rides before the summer rainy season hits.

Love to all,

Marty

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By Marty, June 8, 2011 7:44 pm

Yes, I went literally over the cliff.

Monday, June 6th was Memorial Day here in Korea. So I and a few friends went on a rock-scissors-paper motorcycle tour. Every so often, we would stop at an intersection and play rock-scissors-paper and the winning hand took the direction. It was a great way to see the countryside and we did indeed see some beautiful sights.

a badly stiched panorama of far northern Ulsan, Korea

We took turn after turn, sometimes ending up in small communities, sometimes farm roads and at least once, a gravel road up the side of a mountain. We emerged onto the mountain top overlooking a valley in far northern Ulsan. But before getting there, we hit that gravel road.

And that’s where I went over the cliff

I was going slow, but I hit a soft patch of gravel and my scooter spun to the right. The road was only a single lane and I still had too much momentum to stop before it went right off the edge of the road and down the mountain.

me, down the mountain about 5 meters, with my scooter

Luckily, the scooter caught on a stump or might have tumbled a long way down into the trees. Had that happened, I likely would have simply left the bike there to rot. But instead, the five of us scrambled down the very loose gravel and hefted the bike back on the road. Lots of sweat, dirt, gasoline and oil stains later and we’re back on the road where 100 meters later we found the panoramic view.  Should anyone be worried for my health, I was fine. Only a couple of minor scratches. Same for the bike.

From there, we continued down the road to a historical marker of a long dead Korean hero. Been there, done that. But just up the road from that was a temple run by a German national. Most temples are all the same. But this one was so unique, and the monk and his wife so inviting we stayed and chatted for a long while. If you’re interested, I wrote a longish piece about the temple on my other site, Ulsanonline.com.

We ended up travelling on for another 150km (110miles) into the mountains, coastline, valleys and then back into the city to meet another friend who was buying his first motorcycle. We finally had lunch/dinner around 5pm on the coast followed by coffee on the beach.

Overall, the ride was totally pointless and without aim. But damn, it was fun.  Even the part about going over the cliff.

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By Marty, June 6, 2011 10:44 am

This weekend was both a holiday weekend and birthday weekend. Two friends, Andy and Ryan had birthdays on Saturday so a large group of us decided to take a short trip to GyeongJu and play in the go-karts.

GyeongJu is only about 40km north of here, but not everyone has personal transportation. We decided to take the train, which was outrageously cheap at only $2.50 per person. And being on the southern coast, when it’s time to go back home the roads are always clogged with traffic doing the same. The train was a nice change of pace.

Once in GyeongJu we started walking from the train station to the go-kart track. Bad advice, as it was several kilometers away. We walked maybe a mile or so without seeing any taxis or buses that could take us. Luckily two friends who decided to ride their motorcycles to GyeongJu met us along the way and ferried us, two-by-two, to the track.

Once at the track, I had to put the hard sell on MyeongHee to actually ride the karts. She was receptive when we talked at home, but at the track she wanted to just watch. No problem – I sold her on the idea and she rode.

As you’re reading you may be thinking that go-karts are fun, but come on – how passe’. How old fashioned. Even the times we’d gone to Malibu Grand Prix in Dallas to play they are fun, but pretty tame. I assure you, however, that this was not the case in Korea. These things were fast. Moreover, the track employees, used to dealing with the timid Koreans, were not sure how to handle us foreigners. That whole notion of not wanting someone to “lose face” played right into our hands, er steering wheels. Koreans don’t like to fuss at someone unless it’s a personal affront, so merely breaking rules it is a rarity to  have them call someone out and publicly embarrass them for blatant rule breaking. It was the Wild West, baby. Bumping, slamming, pushing were all, if not legal, tolerated. We had a blast!

I took several pictures of our friends – there were 15 of us total – but quite a few of my honey.  You can see the whole lot of them on my facebook photo album. My good friend Fin Madden took several more and are on his album. His photos show several mash-ups and crashes into the tire walls that MyeongHee didn’t capture.  Just a few of the shots are below. Click the pic for a closeup.

Facebook scrunches pictures down too much and this one is a classic mashup. Click the pic for detailed view. I passed Dee Madden on a tight turn and she could not negotiate the turn in the space I left her. She slammed into the tire wall on the far left. I am on the far right speeding away and laughing

After we came back to Ulsan, we had dinner at a restaurant with a large open-air patio. The weather was perfect: warm but on the shady east side of the building with a slight breeze.  Sometimes I’m still amazed at how cheap things can be here: a full meal of grilled pork, soup, rice, numerous side dishes and several bottles of beer cost only about $11 per person. The equivalent meal in Dallas would be 3-4x that amount.

Sometimes frustrating, sometimes exciting, sometimes I’m homesick and sometimes I’m surrounded by good friends. But Korea is rarely dull.

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By Marty, April 21, 2011 8:27 am

The vacation was great. Nearly six weeks of just hanging out with family and friends. That much time off makes it hard to go back to work, but I have.  Within just a day of beginning a job search I found a nice little gig. Princeton Review got a big contract to offer English courses at the enormous Hyundai Motors factory here in town.  There are numerous small classes with mid-level managers and executives either during lunch time or around dinner time. Since the factory operates 24 hours a day, some of the workers are 2nd shift. Anyway, I snagged a few courses and will make almost the same amount of money for about 1/3 the number of hours I worked as a full-time teacher at a private school.  I also picked up a couple of hours of teaching at another private school near home. So far, I’m scheduled for a whopping 13 hours a week.  Not all

Almost as good as Greek Theater Masks, one girl is happy, one is sad. Common occurence

contiguous, of course, but I can fill the time between courses easily enough.  Throw in a few hours each week of driving back and forth to all these classes and a boy could get really worn out doing 15 hours.

I’ve thrown a number of my vacation pictures up on facebook, but it’s always good to have some spread around. I thought I’d post a few here as well.

Spending a good portion of my time as Jessie’s so I could with the grand-babies was wonderful. Nothing like a little drama to liven things up. Ah, kids.

I took far too many pictures to include them all. So I’ve taken a few of the family shots and posted them below. Click on a photo to see the large size.

Thankfully, we did not have to endure another Sears Photo session and try and fit everyone in the entire extended family onto the canvas.

To see more pictures, check out the big-ass family photo album I posted on my facebook page. Gotta be a facebook user and gotta be a friend, though

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By Marty, April 17, 2011 12:14 pm

The first video I want to share from my vacation in America. These are my granddaughters, Jillian and Jenna.

I was babysitting the two and gave them a snack. It was only a short while, but it didn’t take long for trouble to brew. I gave them “Goldfish” graham crackers in non-spill cups.  Then we turned on the DVR for a few minutes of their favorite TV show by far, The Wiggles. While I tried to get the girls to dance, Jillian eats a few of her goldfish and gives the majority to the dog.

Sure, that’s sharing. That’s nice. But when she runs out of goldfish and mean, old Papa Marty won’t give her any more – that’s the real sharing.

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By Marty, March 5, 2011 5:13 pm

ICE – In Case of Emergency

I’m usually pretty lax about this kind of stuff. Perhaps because I’ve led a charmed life and have had damn few real emergencies so far that I think I won’t ever need to have this. I don’t want to be morbid, but shit happens. I love my wife dearly and would hate to think she would be in limbo not knowing.

I’ll be America for several weeks and just in case something should happen, I’d like for someone to inform my wife back in Korea. Oh, sure I could have written emails, but this way all my bases are covered as so many people I know read this.

So, here’s the number.   ICE Call my wife at 82-010-2550-5941. The 82 is the country code. Calling overseas, depending on the network used, the area code – 010 – is either with or without the leading zero. If 010 doesn’t work, try 10.   When you reach MyeongHee, speak slowly and clearly. Leave off the euphemisms (i.e. he didn’t kick the bucket – he died. You get the idea.)   Korea is 15 hours ahead from American Central Standard Time, so be kind. If you call at noon in Dallas, it’s 3am in Korea. She’ll be a little fuzzy-headed. Wait until 6pm Dallas time and catch her at 9am and explaining things will be far easier.

And after several weeks of enjoying my family and friends, when I’m safely back in this land, when I again hold her in my arms, I’ll chuckle about it and erase this posting.

But just …ICE