Cleaning out the photo folder: the Beautiful Ones

Soundtrack time: hit play and start reading.

Mr. Grieves - A Capella cover of the Pixies song, by TV On The Radio
or, for fun, you can watch this goofball dance. It's kind of fun.

See, it's spring over here, and April and October in Korea are the country at its absolute best. In fact, it's a travesty that I'm in my apartment writing this post instead of lolling about in a park somewhere. It just goes to show how much I love you, my dear readers.

I've been taking bajillions of pictures on my junky little cellphone camera, running up my phone-bill by sending them to my e-mail address, and even beginning to sigh in dismay at their poor quality -- it's reaching the point where the things I see make me happy enough that I wish I had a better instrument for catching their visual gunchiness.

So anyway, somewhere in the last couple of weeks, Spring came! My buddy Chris planned a wine and cheese party in Olympic Park (near my old house) so I headed over, because Olympic Park is a wonderful place.

Lots of people were out lounging around on the grassy fields.


This is one of my favourite trees in all of Korea.


And the one behind it is another. It's hard to see with my low resolution camera, but it's all twisty.

Tons of people came out: it might have been the first real, outdoor-friendly day this spring.

My bud Chris was there sipping wine and eating cheese. I joined him and we just shot the breeze for a couple of hours. It was great -- one of those "I love Korea" or maybe just "I love life" days that I need to remember to write about, to balance out high horses, grinding axes, critical analyses, and rants, from time to time.
Also in Olympic Park, there was a photo shoot (the magnolia trees were blossoming, see?), and it was kind of funny to notice this trumped up model looking away from the cameras with this disinterested look, meanwhile playing to them with her body language at the same time.

All around her, clustered, were mostly unattractive, mostly approaching or middle-aged men with big cameras, huddling around her and taking a picture a second.


Honestly, watching the men fawn over this made-up little symbol of the beauty ideal was more fun than checking out the model -- her hip, disinterested face kind of turned me off.

However, I did get a picture I liked of the way she's ogled and idealized by the photographers: it makes me think of a musical. Compare the above, with this:

Pictures from http://godusesbrokenvessels.blogspot.com/2007/05/bigfork-montana.html


And the most appropriate match:


Honestly, the guy below made me smile more than the model -- the photographers' fawning was more interesting to me than her posing, too -- I see people pose all the time (every time a camera comes out) but how often do you get to see some genuine fawning?

This guy, on the other hand, didn't CARE who was lookin'. He just parked himself on a bench overlooking a trail, and started singing to himself. He gave me a big old smile and a wave when he noticed me looking at him, and maybe if I'd known the song, I'd have sat next to him and sung along for a while. Got a kick out of him -- he was actually enjoying his time and showing it, instead of making a pouty face and pooching out his belly to emphasize his "S line" (S line is what Korean women call the idealized figure -- if you imagine a view of a woman from the side, the curves are supposed to form the shape of an "S")


So that was Saturday. Then on Monday, I met with Girlfriendoseyo, (who's way cooler than a model, because her heart, her intelligence, and her humour make me want to, you know, spend time with her, instead of just looking at her), in Samchungdong. Girlfriendoseyo's best friend Jueun joined us, too. I really like Jueun. She's funny, vivacious, smart, and just goofy enough. When I see her and Girlfriendoseyo together, I feel at peace, just by osmosis, because those two are so deeply happy to be around each other. Girlfriendoseyo has a special flavour of happiness and contentment that only comes out when Jueun is nearby, so I love seeing those two together. Fortunately, Jueun likes me, too. We ate some great lunch together:

And walked all over Samchungdong, Gyungbok Palace, and the street in front of Cheongwadae (the Blue House, where Korea's president lives).

The tree below is also twisty, and it has some magpie nests.
The Cherry blossoms were in full bloom in Gyungbok Palace, though the ones in front of Cheongwadae hadn't quite sprouted, yet.
There's Girlfriendoseyo averting her eyes. I still like her more than the Olympic Park model.
By some mysterious coincidence, every cherry and magnolia tree in downtown Seoul that I spotted had a pale background around it, so that there wasn't any contrast to highlight the colours of the flowers.

Really, to see some actually excellent cherry blossom pictures, go here -- the Marmot has a nice camera instead of a 400 pixel junker like mine.

I think these flowers are called Jindalae-ggott in Korean, or maybe those are only the darker purple ones, not the pink ones; I have no idea what they are in Canadese. (I really ought to learn tree and flower species names; it's embarrassing sometimes. I know almost as many different kinds of flower names in Korean as I do in English.)
This ain't a cherry blossom, but I don't know what it IS called. Go find out yourself. I'm not a journalist, I'm just a lazy-butt blogger. Leave a comment if you know, if you like.

There's girlfriendoseyo and bestfriend again. They were great together.

Tulips in Samchungdong. My friend Mel went to a tulip festival near her hometown in Canada and got some pretty good pics there.
Stolen from my bud Tom's facebook page: night, plus flash, equals the contrast I couldn't find all day Monday: These are from Yeouido, the island where Korea's national parliament buildings are found.


soundtrack part 2: hit play and keep reading.

"We Are Gonna Be Friends" by White Stripes

Once again, with the no-contrast-backgrounds for this nice Magnolia tree near Anguk station.
And this one near Namdaemun Market.


In Samchungdong, there's this awesome little coffee shop that has an awesome selection of herbal teas (it's where I discovered the joys of rosemary tea), and roasts its own beans (YEAH!), and plays cool jazz from its big vinyl records collection. I love it.

Well right next door to it, a new shop opened.
Yep. Coffee Bean, one of the biggest chains in Seoul, has decided to horn in right next door from the hip, cool little independent nonamer. This disappoints me, not because the franchise doesn't have the right to make money where money's to be made, but because I have a feeling a lot of people would choose the more familiar logo by default (in my experience, most humans are creatures of comfort, hardwired toward familiarity), and crowd out a really nifty little coffee shop.

Maybe I'm wrong, and if the little indie place pulls through, I'll be glad to admit I was, but I guess I don't have enough faith in human nature to go for the unique option instead of the familiar, safe one.

Again from my bud Tom's facebook page: Han River is gorgeous at night. Tom makes me want to buy a proper camera, too.
Cherry blossoms near girlfriendoseyo's house.A magnolia tree near girlfriendoseyo's house. The first one I saw this year. See what I mean about backgrounds with bad contrast?
For some other nice pictures of spring in Korea, check out this guy's post from last year, out in Bucheon (a suburb of Seoul).

April 9th was election day in Korea. I did a little coaching to make sure my students said "Election Day" instead of "Erection Day", but other than that, Girlfriendoseyo and I both had a day off, so we went to her old alma mater, Seoul National University, and she walked me around campus. Other than a break to buy an umbrella (and, you know, rain), it was a really nice walkabout.

Except, Seoul National was built during the Park Chung-hee days of Korea's history. President Park valued results over methods, economic growth over individual or press freedom, and function over beauty. To wit, SNU's Library building:
Is ugly.

Their administrative building:Is ugly, too.

There is a possibly apocryphal story that the Korean government hired a world-famous architect to design SNU's buildings, but he basically took the money, designed a single building, and split. In response, rather than spend the money to find another world-famous architect to do the other buildings, Korea just photocopied the blueprints and build the exact same building repeatedly, until they had enough classroom space to fit their needs.

Explains a bit, and also reveals a bit about that government's opinion toward aesthetics. You can see a legacy of that attitude that places function over form in any apartment block in Seoul.


Another way to get around the unattractive architecture: hide it behind pretty trees (a common practice in the above-type apartment blocks, too). Or build ponds. This one was by the humanities building.

This is the best cherry tree I found all week -- it was huge!
"I'm Roboseyo, and I endorse this tree."

From another angle, you can see how big it is -- that's all one tree. . . and finally, one with a dark-coloured building behind it, so you can see the pinky pink properly!More cherry blossom lanes.
The view from the terrace where we had lunch:
Some, uh, purple and, uh, yellow flowers. In bushes.
That tree again. (just humour me; I'm almost done)

Now I've said it before and I'll say it again. The two best times to come to Korea are April and October. Spring and fall are paradise in this country, and should be enjoyed. In fact, I'm mad at myself now for staying in to write this post, instead of going out to enjoy the jaw-dropping day outdoors.

I have some other news, but I'll save it for another post, when I haven't exhausted you all with so many pictures.

Take care, wonderful people! Stay tuned, because there's more where this came from!

Remember that big rant about China sending captured North Korean refugees back to North Korea?

Well grab onto your saddles, and get out your pens, and find out the addresses of your local representatives, because things just got even worse.

And they're getting worse in North Korea, too.

I don't have the heart to hold forth on the topic again, but. . . wow.

My Favourite Class

I will write about my favourite class at my school.

I will use very simple English, so my students can read it.

After my father's wedding, and traveling around Canada in July, I came back to Korea. That August, I had all new classes. One was PreEfl: the lowest level.

Pre EFL classes can be fun, if the students are nice. If the students are shy, or something, it can be a really, really hard class.


This class had some older students. Before coming to this school, I taught small children. Most of my students are about age 40 or younger, or they speak English very very well, from living abroad. I thought, "maybe this class will be really hard."

Instead, I met two ladies.

Their names are Betty







And Veronica.






They don't really look like that.

Betty and Veronica are famous characters from a comic book called "Archie". They are best friends. Betty and Veronica are also two ladies in my English class. They have the same names as the girls in the comic, by coincidence.

"Archie" comic books are very popular in North America. Archie is a high school boy, and he likes two girls.


Veronica is beautiful, and her father is rich, but she is also a princess, and she always changes her mind. Some days she likes Archie, but other days, she likes a boy named Reggie, because Reggie has a nice car.




Betty is the sweet, kind girl next door. She is honest and simple, and she loves Archie. She never changes her mind, and Archie loves her, too, but when Veronica calls, Archie forgets about good and faithful Betty.

Archie is a flake. (flake means a person I can't trust)


In my class, Betty is a sweet, generous lady who studies really hard. I know she studies hard because often, when I teach her a phrase or a word, she uses that phrase or word in our class a few days later. That shows that she studies hard at home, after class, too.

She is very impressive.

Betty studies English because her grandchildren live in America, and she wants to talk to them on the phone, and visit them there. I think that is the best reason I ever heard for studying English. I think about Betty's grandchildren, and it is very touching to see her working so hard to improve her English.

Here is a picture of Betty, on the right. Her classmate Christine is on the left. Christine was new last month. She asks good questions.

Veronica is a very sweet, Catholic lady. Her friend Misuk also comes to class (but she was absent the day we took pictures). Veronica is studying English to help her husband with his business. Her husband wants to work with more international clients and partners. Often Veronica helps her husband at the office.

Veronica is very kind, and she always sees a person's good parts. She always has a big smile, and she really appreciates her classmates, her family, and good things in life. Veronica leads a bible study in her apartment block, and she loves talking about the things she likes doing. She has a sister living in Chilliwack, near my old hometown, and she traveled to New York in November, and then she brought her laptop to class, so she could show her pictures to us.

For Lunar New Year, Veronica gave me some delicious rice cakes that she made with her own hands; they were yakshi, my favourite kind.

Here is Veronica, on the left. On the right is Nahyeon.

Nahyeon is a businessman who has taken a break between jobs to study languages. He is studying both English AND Japanese right now, and he works very hard. He is really good at making sentences, once you encourage him to speak. He shares his opinions, and tries really really hard to put his ideas into words. I really respect his hard work.

He is also gracious. Every day, he thanks me for my teaching.

Sometimes, Betty brings me a cup of coffee in the morning, and occasionally, Nahyeon brings in donuts. Christine (sorry I didn't write about her more: I don't know her as well as the others) brought me a tea one day, Veronica brought some rice cakes, and suddenly we had a big snack party in our class: look at all the good things!
I really feel their appreciation for my teaching, and I have known this class for a long time. They are in Level 1 now, and every month I tell my boss, "Don't change this class. I really love this class." I think they say the same to him, because I have had this class for nine months now! They are my favourite class, and I really love them!

There are other students that are not in the pictures. I also really like John and Misuk (she was in the class from the beginning), Alice, and many other students have come and gone (Jamie, Sebastian, Esther, Rory, Laura) but this 9am class is one of my favourite, and I am sure glad I teach them!

We owe it to them. (yeah, i've been ranting a lot)

to watch what they risked their lives to procure.

Hat tip to OneFreeKorea, the blog where I found links to this documentary.

People have been sneaking video cameras into North Korea to record what actually happens there. If caught, the camerapersons would be tried for espionage, and almost certainly either executed, or punished by being sent, along with their parents, family, and children, to a work camp/death camp.

We owe it to them to see what happens there.

Parts 1 and 5 are especially shocking.

thanks, CNN [correction: thanks, BBC].

Part 1


Part 2


Part 3: the sequence (near the beginning) showing about a dozen dead bodies lying out in the street is shocking and sad.

Rice sent as aid for citizens is being sold for profit, or channeled into the military.

Part 4
It's becoming impossible for Kim Jong-il to keep outside information out.


Part 5
The reporter hired someone to track down a person she met years before, a boy who used to sneak into China, beg, and bring the profits back to his family in North Korea. The tracker found him, and she chats briefly with him on the phone. Having that cellphone is dangerous in North Korea. At one point she asks, "Is there something you want to say to me, but are afraid to say over the phone?" "Yes."

For talking with her on the phone, he is arrested and questioned for three days.


When China finds North Korean refugees, it arrests them and sends them back to North Korea, to near certain death, or life imprisonment in a work camp, if they don't have the cash to bribe themselves out of their pickle.

This is where Canada will send its Olympic team: to a country that sends refugees back to this, and nobody says anything about it, because then China might block up the flow of cheap, outsourced merchandise into whatever country dares to defend the oppressed.

Rather than fixing the human rights situation, China has criticized news organizations for covering their repression of Tibetans in a bad light, leading the BBC to publish this, a letter that I admire, defending a free press.

I don't like this Olympics, and it's disingenuous for Hein Verbruggen and the other IOC folk to say the Olympics is a non-political event, when THEY chose this host city (after being given vague assurances from China that they'd do, y'know, something, about that human-rights-ish stuff), and when China has shown no wish to do anything of the sort, and has continued acting with impunity and without accountability. Mr. Verbruggen may even have traipsed into self-congratuation mode by saying, "Awarding the Olympic Games to China has elevated international dialogue on the situation in Tibet." (Yeah, because everybody's debating exactly how big of a hypocrite you and China's president Hu really are.)

Well, buddy, you're on the world stage now, and if you pass the buck, then who IS supposed to take a stance? Everybody's waiting for someone ELSE to say something, sort of like the awkward pause around the dinner table when somebody makes a racist joke, and I'm afraid nobody but bloggers are gonna feel any outrage about this.

Saying nothing is taken as tacit approval of things like organ harvesting on religious prisoners, that stuff about Tibet and Darfur. But keep your eye on the air quality, over in Beijing, boys! Don't want those athletes to get a scratchy throat! That would be terrible, and we'd have to reprimand Beijing. . . if we can get a hold of them while they're so busy organ-harvesting Falun Gong practitioners and coordinating "pay no attention to the man behind the curtain" tours of Tibet for foreign journalists, and deporting North Korean refugees to life in a death camp and stuff.

I guess the Olympics are about sport and not politics, sure whatever . . . but if the IOC sticks to that stance, they're basically telling me that there are no ideals other than "Higher Faster Stronger," that they don't really care if the Olympics helps make the world a better place or not -- let's just watch some people throw some stuff really far, and jump over some other things really fast. I'm afraid I'll stop caring about something that started off seeming to me like a song for world peace, and has ended up ringing out as just another race for TV advertising revenues.

[Update: this morning, the president of the IOC spoke about Tibet. Read the article yourself to decide if you think he's sincere, or using doublespeak. I could use pull-quotes and make you think what I think, but you already know where I stand, so read it for yourself.]

[Update 2: Thanks to Jawick for the link.]