Monday, May 25, 2009

Thursday, May 21, 2009

HEY LOOK

The pictures from my trip to Mali are finally up! Check out Day 75 now!

Day 67: K-Pop

K-Pop (Korean popular music) has played a strange role in my life here in Korea. While I haven't embraced it as avidly as Anna did, for example, it's still an inescapable reality.

Every storefront. Every restaurant. Every car.

About three different songs.

But these songs change about every two weeks. Stardom in the K-pop world is a capricious wench, with songs becoming hugely, massively, almost unimaginably popular overnight, then disappearing leaving barely a ripple in the soundscape of your average Korean street. I can't even count how many "oh my god best song ever"-style number ones there have been in the past few months, let alone my entire sojourn here. But I guarantee you that my kindergarteners know all the words.

While I know I just said that K-pop hits seem to be almost by definition flash in the pan, I think I failed to emphasize appropriately just the kind of market saturation they achieve. Every storefront, every restaurant, every minute, every second, I can hear a Korean Pop song. Yes, even now.

This makes my relation to them complex. Do I know all the words? No. Do I know who sings it? No. Can I tell them all apart? Hell no. Do I have the melody of every single one and all their English lyrics irrevocably drilled into my auditory cortex? Can I whistle every single one of them, much to my students' amusement?

You bet your ass.

I don't really care for this style of music, with a few exceptions (some provided below), but it is undoubtedly catchy, and I have even begun curating a collection of the most memorable (good and bad) so I will instantly be able to recall my memories of my time here in the distant future.



This is "Gee," one of the biggest hits currently. It's by Girls Generation, who are all quite pretty but the song kind of makes me want to claw my ears off. The word "Gee" has an interesting origin in Korea. In slang, it pretty much means "oh wow, he/she is so hot!" The reason for this is apparently the keyboard. The English letters G-E-E, when typed using a Korean keyboard, spell out "ㅎㄷㄷ" which, apart from being unpronounceable (no vowels), is the noise people are supposed to make whenever they see someone ridiculously good-looking. If Koreans are anything like the Japanese, it would probably be accompanied by a raging nosebleed.



Here's one I actually like, a very K-Pop-ified cover of Craig David's "Insomnia." This one is also huge right now. From what I can tell, this one is actually more popular here than the original was in America. Of course, I wasn't in America. Also dig that totally Korean dancing in the video.



And what collection of K-Pop music videos would be complete without one by Rain? Yes, this is the video Colbert parodied here:

The Colbert ReportMon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
He's Singing in Korean
colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full EpisodesPolitical HumorGay Marriage


Fantastic, fantastic stuff.



Here's the MV of the song that was most popular when I first arrived in Korea, by one of the biggest names currently shakin' booty in the land of the morning calm: BIG BANG. I actually like this one.



Here, then, is a song on the other end of the spectrum, the genre at its most insipid. This was popular when I arrived as well, but unlike "Lies," I tended to turn up my iPod whenever I caught the strains of this one. Note, though, how catchy still, how it refuses to leave your head. Try listening to this for about TWO MONTHS STRAIGHT every time you leave your apartment.



As for this one, well, the song is so so, but I like the, uh. Moving along.





Thought I'd end with two songs that I actually really enjoy, probably my two favorite of the genre. I've been known to sing along with the latter in noraebangs and actually impress my Korean friends with how much of it I can do.

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Days 74-68: Days turn into weeks

I present to you here a cop-out and a sincere apology!

I have gotten woefully behind in my writing. This week has been chock-full of busyness, work, study for the LSAT, trips to the gym and various other drains of my precious little free time.

I think I'm going to change the direction of the blog a little. I still want to update every day, but each day in the past I've put undue pressure on myself to put out a full-length post on some topic that took time to conceive and more time to write about. This led to a few nights the past week where I wasn't satisfied that I had a sufficiently interesting topic to post about, and so I pushed it back to the next day - which also got pushed back to the next day when I couldn't think of something for that day either. I don't want that kind of pressure to impede something which was originally intended as more of a "thought of the day" kind of thing, with longer, meatier entries when events warranted. I want it to get back to that, so that's what I have in mind for the future of the blog. Think of this week off as a sort of soft reset.

However, that doesn't mean the past week was without incident:

-I watched "The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen" with friends on Wednesday. It came on hearty un-recommendation from John. He was right, it was terrible.

-Saturday night, I had an absolutely astounding meal up in Seoul with my Korean friends. We went to a sushi restaurant that specializes in serving ONLY TUNA, which is of course the best kind of sushi, and it was tremendously delightful. They even played some really horrible cover versions of much-beloved songs, including (get this) and opera version of The Beatles' "Yesterday." Meghan, Rachel and I were shocked, appalled, and in hilarity.

-Sunday night saw Kaleisha and I heading into City Hall for a concert featuring none other than TOWER OF POWER, which was probably one of the highest-energy concerts I've ever been to, ranking right up there with Zebrahead in London and Ben Folds in Cedar Rapids. The Korean opening band was fantastic, too, falling somewhere between the aforementioned Tower of Power and Big Bang (Korea's biggest pop/hip-hop group). Their name was Common Ground and I will be seeking out their music before I leave the country, including hopefully attending another concert. Did I mention this concert was free, courtesy of one of Kaleisha's student's parents. Teacher's Day is awesome.

-Speaking of Teacher's Day, Jeff told me a good joke on Saturday:
Knock, Knock
Who's there?
To.
To Who?
It's "to whom." Happy Teacher's Day.

You can expect me back tomorrow. Again, apologies for the delay, and photos of my trip to Africa (from the last post) should be up shortly.

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Day 75: The Africa Retrospective

In light of Elise's impending re-visit to Korea, and since I never got these photos on to the blog in the first place (it had long since been defunct), here is a smattering of photos from my December trip to Mali!

PS It was the coolest trip of my life.

EDIT: Here are those pictures. Sorry!

This is a view of a street in Bamako (the capital of Mali) right outside of our hotel - where there were some cattle being driven down the street.


This is a pretty scene in a more upscale part of Bamako kind of near the Peace Corps Bureau, if I remember correctly.

Now Elise and I are in a car with our tour guide headed to Dogon country, famous for being some of the prettiest around Mali. This is a shot out of the window at one of many similar-looking structures, made of mud bricks.

We're getting deeper into Dogon country!

If memory serves (and it does), this canyon was near the end of our car trip, whereupon we disembarked and continued our journey on foot through several small villages.


This is a mud mosque in the first village we stopped at in Dogon country. We had lunch in a very nice two-story concession nearby.

More scenery.

Now we are up in the famous ancient cliffside villages. Here's a shot of the lovely Elise in the foreground with our tour guide in the background! He was pretty cool, knew his stuff and spoke French and a little English (for me).


This is Elise and I in the fancy concession that we stayed at for pretty much an entire day during our trip. in one of the inner villages.

The rooftop terrace where we hung out all day.

Wild camel! Wild camel! En route to the next village in Dogon country.

Mali sure is pretty.

Especially when adorned with monkey skulls.

And even prettier when Elise is around!

Pigs on a mountain!

This picture is my desktop background.

Finally we leave Dogon country for the busy riverside port of Gau.

Elise is making Green Tea for our boat's captain as we sail down the "Crocodile River."

"I'm on a boat! I'm on a boat!"

Another mud mosque.

The obligatory exploiting picture of local children. But I couldn't resist because they were so cute.

Some pretty local Tuareg.

She was kind enough to pose with me in full Tuareg regalia.

One corner of Elise's concession, her papaya trees.

The main part of Elise's concession: The building on the left is her kitchen and storage room, and the building on the right edge of the picture is her sleepin' space. Most of her time is spent hanging out outside under the shade in between.

Day 76: Notes of Note

Just a brief update, since nothing really noteworthy happened today:

-Megan is back, work schedule is back to normal, slightly more bearable mode.

-I will probably be going to see The Swell Season (you know, Glen Hansard and Marketa Inglova from the movie Once) in concert in City Hall on Friday. Color me excited!

-ELISE IS COMING ELISE IS COMING OH MY GOSH

That is all.

Monday, May 11, 2009

Day 77: We Go to War

Kaleisha, John and I went to the Korean War Memorial on Sunday. John was like a kid in a candy store and Kaleisha and I did our best to keep up. It was pretty cool to have someone so learned in Military History and equipment because he could answer any friggin' question I had about anything. The last couple entries were so talks so much so I think I'll let the pictures do the talkin' as your mouse does the walkin'.














I love this picture. John had just thrown down his brochure because he was so pissed at himself for incorrectly identifying a plane.

Saturday, May 9, 2009

Day 78: The Cell Saga

Friday of a week ago, Friday, May 1st, I lost my cell phone.

Losing a cell phone is a BIG DEAL in Korea. Although mine was quite a cheap model, I had become quite attached to it. I had composed a number of custom ring tones for it, it had a Korean-English dictionary that was quite handy, and it was a stylish black sliding model. Worst of all, it had, in the place of a usual cell phone charm such as Mario or Doraemon, an expensive Samsung-brand 8 gigabyte USB memory drive. I was devastated.

I lost the phone after a long night of debauchery which included time spent playing Titanic at Exit and singing my lungs out at a noraebang. I was quite sure that I had the phone at Exit, since Friend Kenno reached me there, and also Friend Joe confirmed that I was looking up someone's number for him when he saw me there. So, then, the phone must have either been at Exit or the noraebang, or lost somewhere in my apartment (or elsewhere in between these three destinations).

Saturday, a rainy Saturday, I headed out to seek my lost phone. The moment I realized it wasn't on my nightstand (around 11 AM), I performed my usual phone-finding trick - I dialed it from my landline. No response, and instead a recorded message in Korean saying something (I guessed) about the phone being off. So no such luck with the ring-and-listen trick. So I set off, heading first to the noraebang. After much explanation, the kindly old man took me to the room I was sure we sang in the previous night, swept it over with the flashlight (one of those alarumed numbers that emits a high-pitched whine when you remove it from its holster on the wall). No luck. My phone was still AWOL.

I next headed to Exit, that shady hole of sin and slander, but it was closed. Undaunted, I made plans to head back later.

Later: It wasn't there either.

I had given up. I feared I would never see my Cellular Companion again.

Fast-forward to Tuesday night, when an event most strange and miraculous occurred:

My phone magically turned itself back on.

Or actually, someone had found it, charged it and turned it on. I found this out when Friend Cody tried to call me on Tuesday, apparently forgetting that I had lost my cell phone, and was answered by a gravelly-voiced Korean who did not speak word one of English. We attempted to have Friend Joe (a bilinguist) call him, but he didn't answer.

The next day, I had Jun, one of my Korean coworkers, call him, but again he didn't answer. I called him myself at night and was able to talk to him, but my limited Korean didn't get far past "this are my cell phone? (sic)" and "where is you be? (sic)," and I couldn't get most of his responses.

I had given up. I feared I would never see my Cellular Companion again.

Fast-forward to Friday night, when an event most strange and miraculous occurred:

I was well into those 7 cold reasons for getting through the day mentioned in my last post, when I got an IM from Friend John explaining that Friend Ian had called him, hoping to get passed through to me. I also happened to be logged in to facebook, where Friend Ian did get hold of me. He told me he had called my phone, also forgetting that I had lost it, and chatted a bit with the Korean fella. He said the guy worked at a restaurant called "Hangribossam" which was he believed to be quite near my apartment. The name sounded familiar, but I was 85% I had never patronized this restaurant, and 95% sure I didn't go there on Friday night.

Friend Ian said he would try to set up a phone hand-off with the gentleman, so he asked me what the name of my building was. I answered, to the best of my knowledge, truthfully: "Soho Ville."

He called the other guy, and came back to facebook laughing.

The Man Who Found My Cell Phone Lives In My Building

Of all the buildings in Suji, of all the places that people live who could have found my phone, the guy who found it lives right in my goshdarn building.

So I walked upstairs, knocked on 404, and he handed over my cell phone, usb memory stick intact. I thanked him profusely. I think I owe him a beer, or some bread, or something.

End of story.

Day 79: I read the News Today, oh boy

And Here May We Present:

A Day in the Life of Tyler Teacher.

8:00 AM. I woke up too early. Strange & Troubling dreams. Went back to sleep.

9:00 Woke up, get out of bed, drag a comb across my head (well, not that last part, but you get the idea)

9:20 Breakfast is 2 Dr. You breakfast bars & an apple. I head out for work.

9:30 In the elevator, I can already hear screaming children by the time it reaches the 3rd floor. Our school is on the 7th floor. This does not bode well.

9:40 Eleven classes with only a short lunch break begins with Joey class, my youngest group of kindergarteners. Susan still screams basically every time she sees me. This period, we play with duplo knock-offs and I try to get them to repeat English words after me.

Susan

10:25 Swan class. I take the children to the library, as noted in the schedule, and I spend most of the time there pointing out the literary situations in the school's Pagemaster books that are like Where's Waldo knock-offs with Hank and Eddie. It is one of the most enjoyable library days I've had in quite a while.

11:05-11:10 Dark Thoughts

11:10 Swan class again - this time back in the regular classroom for some quality time with our "Treasures" book. Eddie, probably my most intelligent but definitely my most distractable kindergartener, likes to play a guessing game with me where he rearranges the books facedown on the table and has me try to guess which one belongs to who.
Eddie can be seen here on the table, bothering Kelly and Emily.

Kevin likes to mug for the camera.

Kevin is the class' pretty boy.

Clearly.

Around the end of class, I take them outside, because they've been pretty good, really.


11:50 Lunch, and the day's only break. Kimchi and rice for eats, John and I spend most of the time discussing the awfulness that is League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. We can't remember who wrote "The Picture of Dorian Gray" (Protip: Oscar Wilde)

12:50-1:30 Back with Joey class again. This time around, we draw and I attempt to figure out and label what they're drawing.

1:35-2:15 "Show and Tell" Now, for Show and Tell, I'm kind of thrown to the wolves as I must contend, alone, with both Swan and Penguin classes, our two oldest, biggest and most misbehaved kindergarten classes. By and large, though, the students in these two classes are pretty smart, so it kind of balances out. Not on show and tell day, though. Show and tell day is invariably a free-for-all.
Show and Tell class in the library. Note no one is really "Showing" or even "Telling." We should call it "Sit and Ignore Teacher" class. That's adorable Kein climbing up on the table there.
This is Ingrid, MYU's unofficial mascot. She is also one of my favorite students, although I only teach her twice a week. She hangs around the office pretty much all day since Sunny teacher is her aunt.

2:15-2:35 After Show and Tell, it's snack time for the kids, and afternoon prep time for the teachers. Here's snack being prepared:
Eddie and Matthew decide to have a remote car race in the hallway:
Eddie consents to a rare photo
Matthew, the race's victor

2:35-3:15 Since Megan is in America for two weeks, John and I have to cover her classes. P1-1 is one of hers, although I have taught all the students before in some capacity or another. Today, at least, we're doing a level test, but they will NOT STOP TELLING EACH OTHER THE ANSWERS. And to make matters worse, Danny decided to hit the "next track" button halfway through the listening section of the test. The entire test is on one track.

3:20-4:00 Test with P2-1, which today was just Leo and Thomas, two of my best students. Easy as pie.

4:00-4:10 Glorious ten-minute passing time! I play the piano for a little bit.

4:10-4:50 P3-1. I am exhausted by this point. Students in this class are honestly quite hateful at times. There are seven cold reasons in my fridge why I will make it through this day.

4:44-5:35 The start of a double block of T1-1, another class I am covering for Megan. Again, I know all these students. They are excitable, but they are a bit older and quite advanced. I take them out for slushies and we work on our show and tell writing assignment for later in the month. On the way out for slushies, I run into Charlie, Denny, Andrew and Jenny, who of course demand slushies as well. I trust Andrew the most, so I give him a few bills and send them back the way we came.

5:40-6:20 T1-1 still. I listen to Thomas tell me ghost stories. Thomas' comprehension is through the roof, but he gets really nervous when speaking English and garbles up his sentences pretty badly. Still, he's a good kid, so I'm patient.

6:25-7:05 Ah, glorious NA 5-1! The best class in the school. Even better, Fridays are speaking days, so we chill in the library and talk about whatever comes to mind.

7:20 Home. Finished. The weekend peeks its head up above the horizon, virtually gravid with promise. I have earned my just rewards: