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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, October 3, 2011 10:38 am

Hello! Hi there! Long time no see.

Sorry I haven’t written much on these pages. Sometimes there just isn’t anything fun or funny or interesting to write about. It’s been heads down work and not much else these days. And there’s not much of anything that’s fun or funny or interesting about that, either.

Beyond working on version of my smartphone app, Teacher’s Pet, I’ve also been working hard on redesigning my website, Ulsanonline.com. That site has been put together over a period of months and years and much of it clashes with itself – multiple fonts on the same page, boxes of content don’t align with each other, borders collide rather then mesh, constants aren’t, variables, won’t – the usually litany of technical drugdgery. I’ve even gone so far as to hire a graphics designer to help out with a new logo and artwork for the site.  I hope to have that work done in a week or two. As for Teacher’s Pet, we’ve sold still somewhat less than 50 copies, but as I’ve previously mentioned, the experience of programming will be, I hope, worth far more than the revenue stream it’s producing.

And my teaching jobs remain fluid. I’m currently working two jobs – a series of after school English classes at elementary schools and adult English classes at night. The after school job is far less about teaching than it is about making money for the program owner; books are read and new books sold to parents whether the kids can read or understand them or not.  All my jobs are part-time, and there are no lack of opportunities. If one doesn’t fit, I can move on to another. I’m about to change jobs again in a week or so – this one ought to be different. I’ll be teaching French kids to speak English. There are a lot of engineers and managers from around the world that come to Korea for the shipbuilding business. Apparently, one company has provided education for their employees’ children as part of the deal to bring them here. So, I’ll be teaching English to French kids in Korea. How’s that for a twist?  The hours are only 10 per week, but they’ll pay me as much as many teachers get for a full time job. I’ll probably still fill my week, however, as I also try to fill my bank account.

We do get out and have some fun sometimes. This past weekend we went for a drive in the mountains west of Ulsan. Fall is a fabulous season in Korea and although the leaves aren’t turning yet, the skies are blue, the air crisp and the countryside beautiful.

MyeongHee stands in front of the lake near Miryang.

Me too, but MyeongHee isn't tall enough to snap the picture over the railing and get the lake in view

This last picture I snapped while driving through the valley as we came out of the mountains. Miryang is famous for apples and the valley was carpeted with apple farms and apple trees. Koreans keep the trees fairly pruned for easier picking – none of the apples would require more than a large step-stool to reach – even over a grove of them it’s still easy to see the farmer beyond.  These trees, although difficult to see here, were heavily laden with fruit. And all around the villages farmers were selling boxes of apples they’d already picked. I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many apples in one place.

Apples, apples apples

Today, Monday, October 3rd, is a holiday here in Korea – Armed Forces Day. We had a three day holiday in September and now another single adjacent to a weekend. That doesn’t happen often – seems like the last year or two the holidays fell on the weekend and well, that’s your holiday.  I plan on spending my holiday relaxing and programming stuff.  And maybe taking my dogs for a walk in the warm afternoon sun.

Hope everyone is doing well.  Ta ta for now.

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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 17, 2011 10:59 am

Monday, August 15th was a holiday here in Korea celebrating independence day from the Japanese in 1945. I took to the roads with some good friends and we made a motorcycle trip around the area.

Usually, Korea is a sexually repressed society. You won’t see skimpily dressed women – even on the beach they wear a t-shirt over their bikinis (mostly). TV is tame and is either blurred out for the naughty bits or perhaps just some breasts shown on late nights.  But when they have a passion to display things of a sexual nature, they let it out with both barrels of the shotgun.

Two places we went to were sexual in nature. The first was the Penis Cafe, a coffee shop way out in the boondocks where they can’t be seen by the little ones.  I wrote an article for the UlsanOnline restaurant guide. Click on the link to read about this crazy place. I think the owner has an obsession with the penis, or maybe just sex in general.

After that, we drove up to GyeongJu, about 40km away and visited the Love Castle. This place was a real museum with artwork dating back thousands of years all the way up to contemporary art – all of a sexual nature.  I wrote another article for that website and put it in the travel section.  Fun times.

I like writing for that website and being the famous “ulsanonline guy.” when meeting new people in town. New teachers come every fall and spring and they’ve all read the site before they get here (do a search for Ulsan on google and the site comes up pretty high on the list) and I get my 15 minutes of fame.  I do have a number of other people that write on the site and I pay them for their efforts.  And sometimes, I like to leave things anonymous, although looking through it’s not hard to put two and two together and see who wrote it.

Friend Dee - on a cock swing

After those two places, we decided a little mountain serenity would be good. Cruising through Korea’s mountainous countryside is really a joy. Once outside the city it’s a beautiful place.  We visited an ancient temple with one of the best (they say) Buddhas in all of east Asia. No pictures allowed, so you’ll have to take my word for it. But the winding roads through the mountains is a real treat on a motorcycle.

Then we went down to the coast at caught the sunset at the twin pagodas.

Monstrous things, it’s hard to imagine how the Koreans put these together without cranes as they are over 1000 years old.

It’s days like that that I really wish some folks from back home would come visit so I could share this place other than through pictures. The daily grind in the city is ok, and fun just because it’s so very different in so many ways from home, but the countryside is truly magnificent.  You should save your bottle caps and make a trip out east to come visit before the days comes that I decide to come home and stay back in the US.  You’ve got a place to stay while you’re hear, so all you need concern yourself with is a plane ticket. Come on over! I’d love to show you more of the place than just a few pictures.

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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 15, 2011 9:17 pm

That’s what I get these days driving around town. And that’s good that I get such good mileage, because gas ain’t cheap here. I’m paying 1850won/liter, which works out to about $6.38 per gallon.  I’ve only got a 3-liter tank, so I have to fill up about every 100km (60miles) or so, and that costs me another 6 bucks, give or take. Of course, all that’s on my scooter, which means I have to deal with weather and crazy drivers. But that’s not so bad considering I’m paying very close to $1 per every 10 miles or 10mpd.

Just thought I’d do that math.

Have you figured what your MPD is? With gas prices in the US having risen dramatically this year I’m curious how much each mile is costing the average driver.

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By Marty, June 12, 2011 10:51 am

By bicycle.

Too hot for climbing and too nice to stay indoors, I decided to make a long ride on the bike out to the beach.

But first, I have to cross those bad boys in the distance

That’s Muryongsan in the distance with the radio tower on top. That’s a 400m (~1200ft) mountain – that doesn’t make it very big, but for a bike that’s no mole hill.

Up close, it doesn’t look so daunting, but then I’ve gained some altitude getting to this fork in the road. Cars and trucks go right, while bikes or sightseers go left. The old road is twisty and curvy and a relatively easy grade, although it goes higher than the road through the tunnel.

For most of the way up, I saw no other riders going my way, but many coming back down. At nearly the halfway point, I spotted a ride approaching from the rear and my competitive instincts kicked in. I had been riding rather leisurely and I stepped it up and left him in the dust. I saw him in my rearview mirror attached to my helmet trying to keep up. This old man was too fast for him.

Half way up there is a small spring where a guy can refill his water bottle.

And near the top of the pass is a stairway to Nowhere

The new road, goes through the tunnel which is on the far right of this picture. Although that road is not as high in altitude the grade is much steeper. There are remnants from the construction days still on the far left. Two sets of overgrown stairs go to what looks like nowhere.  Click on the picture for a full view of these Stairways to Nowhere, now covered in ghostly brush.

And just past this is the view to the far side of the tunnel and the mountains beyond.

At the top the altimeter on my smartphone says I was at 225m or about 700ft.

A swift ride down the east side of this ridge and I’m approaching the sea.

newly planted rice paddies fill the flat lands approaching the sea in the distance

The village at the edge of the sea

I made it!

On the east side of the mountain I was going too fast too look at much of the scenery. But on the way back up I was going much slower and had time to look around. This boat was perched on the side of the mountain on a set of logs.

Fish out of water

It advertises a bean curd restaurant just down the hill on a side path. There’s something about Koreans that have a propensity to place boats – even ships – on dry land.  This boat was half way up the east side of the mountain, at least 6km from any water. But if it were the only boat out of water it would simply be an oddity. Instead, it’s another of a virtual flotilla of boats in various places – except water – here in Ulsan. I did a pictorial for Ulsanonline last year on these fish out of water.

Overall, I rode close to 50km. Certainly no record or even personal best, but an interesting way to spend a Saturday afternoon. And it helps keep the fat off. All the pants I bought in America this spring are baggy on me now.

I run an application called “endomondo” on my phone. It tracks my path, times, speed, altitude, calories, blah, blah.  And then after I’m finished I get a nice chart of my ride including a graph of speeds and altitudes.

endomondo output

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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 28, 2011 11:47 am

Less than two days after the bike was stolen I got it back!  Woo hoo! I must be living right!

It turns out the thief sold it to a “friend” and the “friend” brought it to OMK Bicycle shop in Ulsan. OMK is one of several bike shops that know me, but these guys do all the mechanical work on my bike and are also my business partners on my other website, Ulsanonline.com.  They have been regular advertisers on the site and regular mechanics for me. It was no surprise they recognized the bike since a) I just had some work done on it last week and b) the seat was still raised high enough to accommodate a 6’1″ dude.  I’m betting the “friend” is the thief himself and unloaded it as quickly (and as far from my house – 5 miles) as he could. The bike shop owners convinced him the police would be looking for such a bike (they weren’t – I didn’t even call them since the thief had a mask and hat) and that it would be foolish to openly ride it around town.  They called me on Wednesday evening and I picked up the bike Thursday.

Honestly, I think it pays to be a white-face among a sea of Asian faces. Lots of Koreans know me because I look so different. But if I see them outside of the normal environment I have come to know them (i.e I see the butcher not at his store but at the park) I don’t always recognize them.  Back home in teh USA I’d be just another forgettable guy whose bike was ganked.

Anyway, as I expected, when I got the bike  the compact air pump was gone, as was the saddle bag with tools and spare tube. The thief also took the speedometer/odometer but he left the sensor on the front wheel so that’s useless.  All minor problems.  I immediately bought a hand-phone case from OMK BIkes (I love those guys) that will let me clip the phone to the handlebars and I can run Endomondo, a GPS-enabled application on the phone that will track my speed, miles, calories – an even better tool than a mere speedometer/odometer.  Now I just need another air pump and tool bag with tools and I’m set for the long rides into the mountains.

The only bad news from all of this is that my bike now lives in the apartment where we really don’t have room for it.  Even chained to the metal handrails on the stairwell outside the apartment offers no protection from a bolt cutter.