A wonderful week for Korea (not)

Life has been pretty boring in the personal sphere, but it has been a bad week for Korea overall. Since most of the people reading this are not overly acquainted with Korean politics I'll keep it pretty simple. First off, the ex-president, who is being investigated aggressively for corruption by the current president, committed suicide.  The investigation was subsequently called off. I'm going to go ahead and say that this is bad for Korea's reputation, not to mention sending a bad message about suicide. . Not going to help a country whe's trying to shake an image of political corruption and backwardness. Not going to help a country with a epidemic of suicide. 

(If you wanna read some more detail, this is a more detailed blog about it -->  http://roboseyo.blogspot.com/2009/05/ex-pres-rohs-suicide-wrong-in-so-many.html)

And the other thing which I'm sure you've heard in the news, is that North Korea did another nuclear test, underground, and then launched two missile tests swiftly after. Lovely. So far since I've been here, NKorea's stuff mostly just sets off rounds off political rhetoric from Seoul and Tokyo. You don't see much effect on your day to day life. Read BBC if you want some more details  http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8068619.stm

The worst part (aside from the human tragedy of the suicide, and the global instability our Northern friends are causing of course) is that the Won (Korean currency) has dropped like a rock. And I have to send money home every month to pay some bills. Booooooo!

I have had a sticker shoved up my nose (and some cute video)

Yes, Seo-Yeong (Jenny's daughter) shoved a sticker up my nose and thought it was hilarious. I thought she was just pretending. But I kept asking her and she kept saying she really did...then Jenny asked her and she said she really did....then Jenny pretended to phone the hospital because it was really dangerous....then she said she didn't do it. Haha. Then I went to the bathroom and sure enough....Korean alphabet sticker....haha

Anyway, here's a couple really cute videos....they are not uber exciting....just for the cuteness factor....

This is a special blog. Not only does it contain footage that is out of this world cute....but there is exceedingly rare footage of Matt dancing!!!!!

THE ABC FILES: TAKE ONE (Note the vicious sticker blow to the face)

In take 2: her performance was much better....but  she couldn't say "w" for the life of her.....which leads us to take 3...where "w" has improved...but at what cost????

POSSIBLY THE CUTEST VIDEO EVER

Her first attempt at English ever.....

The words for this song are "how's the weather, let me see, let me see, let me see" x2 "Oh it's Sunny!"  And the sticker on my head says "Grasshopper" which she thought was hilarious

And take 2...stunning masterful performance

This is the video that started it all that made us realize we should teach her ABC's.....

The Text is:

Seo-Yeong: Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, You shine so beautifully. From East, to um East ..... And...................

Matt and Jenny: (Laughing) 

Jenny: Abc etc 

Seo Yeong: Twinkle Twinkle......

Matt: Again??

Jeju Island

So yea, last weekend, I got a bonus day off that gave me a four day weekend. Mike and Derek and Tyler and the other lucky teachers that already knew they had vacation has booked stuff on Jeju Island long before. (Jeju is the biggest South Korean Island, south of the peninsula and of a warmer climate that the rest of the place. Volcanic Islands and recently named a world UNESCO heritage site )

I on the other hand had to spend hours scouring every possible airline and managed to secure the last two tickets on a flight to Jeju from Seoul.  So me and Jenny didn't even sit together on the plane. Haha. Anyway, I was still excited. 

Apparently everyone in the country tries to go to Jeju on national holidays...anyway, we didn't really encounter any crowds...just problems finding a car, a scooter, etc. 

It was so beautiful....reminded me of BC a lot actually....as well as Hawaii...for most of the time it actually wasn't very warm....but the last two days it was pretty hot....

We saw beautiful oceans, and beaches, and palm trees, and waterfalls and rivers. Ate delicious pineapple on a stick for $1 multiple times. A day. Hehe. And delicious oranges. Hmmm. 

Some really crazy lava caves (biggest in the world) and lots of weird rock formations on the coast. Some of the coast looked like BC and some of it looked like space. 

A crazy cedar maze that we decidely to randomly wander through instead of analyze. Big mistake. 

And yes that is a "lighthorse" in the picture. Interesting no? 

Anyway a nice holiday and a break from the dysfunciton that was Kyle and Amy's final days here....

Matt's rating?

 8.5/10

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

The Rascist Letter

Sorry for the delay between installments....it was punctuated by a four day weekend I didn't know I was going to get. Which was very nice and enabled my to fly south to Korea's Jeju Island for a vacation. In that time Kyle and Amy went home as well, so I have a few more things to blog about after this letter business. 

The letter....yea the letter I wish I hadn't read. I told you about the horrible week at Kyle's work...well the week at our work wasn't much better. If Kyle had legal problems...Amy had relational problems.  Amy and our defacto day to day boss. We will call her G-Boss. Because E-Boss splits time between our two ELC campuses. 

I wrote last time that Kyle and Amy didn't want to work that last day of their contracts after their visa had expired...I think our school kind of took that as a snub...they were upset by that. And then in a weird twist....during the course of a phone conversation, Kyle's boss told our G-Boss that some Korean teacher at Kyle's school has overheard Amy calling G-boss " our secretary" instead of "our boss". For some reason this fourthhand overheard snippet of questionable reliability from a non-native english speaker provoked a wild unleashing of emotion unlike anything I have every seen. (It's important that you know the G-boss and Amy and me were all pretty chummy. Good friends. That's what made it so much worse. )

Anyway, amidst a week of high tensions, uber-awkwardness, crying fits and stony silence an unbelievable letter was produced which I really don't want to dwell on....but among other things called into question Kyle and Amy's intelligence, work ethic, maturity and integrity. Worse than that, how all caucasian people are lazy, dishonest freeloaders, disrespectful of Korea, and that she will never trust another foreigner again. Um. Wow. Pretty sure you would lose your job if you wrote that in Canada. Maybe even some legal problems. 

And no, the letter was not for me....but I am included in "all foreigners".  And she had to know Amy was going to tell me about it. So I'm not sure how to look at her anymore...I've never felt a hint of that before. But there the words are, right on the page. Not sure which boss is the real one anymore. 

CULTURE FACTOR - I dunno...in every place I've ever been it's kind of like Murderers, Thieves, Rapists and Rascists go together...not so much here apparently. Jenny didn't understand why it was so offensive either. She said Koreans are often like that, bottle it all up till it explodes...uber-dramatic language etc etc.  And from my experience that is true...they definitely suppress feelings a lot more here than in "Western" culture. But that doesn't make it much better.