In Korean Newsweek: Don't Lose the Spirit Of Adventure

I'm in Korean Newsweek. Here's the link to the Korean article.

Here's the English article I sent in, which they translated.

Don’t Lose the Spirit of Adventure
by Robert Ouwehand

Every semester, I meet a new set of adult students, and during the first class, I answer some questions about myself, so my students know me better. Somebody almost always asks, “How long have you been in Korea?” When I answer, something mystifying sometimes happens: for example, this semester, a pretty young female student seemed surprised I’ve been here for six years, and asked, “Really?” with an incredulous voice.

When I explain that I really love living here, some students seem surprised, and their attitude: “What’s there to love about Korea?” dismays me. When I spend time around expats living in Korea, the conversation is sometimes similar: “Six years? How’d you last so long? It’s my second year, and I’m already cynical!” This echoes Koreans I have spoken with, who dream of moving to another country: “You want to stay in Korea? I can’t wait to leave!” they say. Of course, Korea is not the only country with dissatisfied people, but it is still a little sad to have this conversation too often.

This conversation reminds me of another conversation I often have with friends and students: on Mondays, a common small talk topic is “What did you do this weekend?” Some people almost always tell the same story: “I stayed home and watched TV, and on Saturday night I met a friend and we drank together (at the same bar as always).” Other times, this conversation leads to stories and sometimes even to suggestions of areas to visit, sites to tour, restaurants to find, and foods to sample. When I share my weekend experiences, ever since my second year living in Seoul, I have regularly had Korean friends -- even friends who lived their whole lives in Seoul -- exclaim, “You probably know more about Seoul than I do!”

I suspect there is a connection between these conversations. I suspect that the people who don’t enjoy living in Seoul, who can’t imagine why I enjoy it, are the same ones who say they stayed home on the weekend. I suspect that they are also the same ones who seem amazed at the variety of fun places and activities I enjoy in and around Seoul. Sure, it might just be lip service when my friends tell me I know more about Seoul after six years, than they learned in their whole lives. However, it might be something else.

When I was fourteen, my family moved from central Canada to Western Canada: a completely new, totally unfamiliar region. During our first two years there, especially, my father made a point of regularly taking short trips to explore the province. In those days, my father would report visiting a place, and some locals would also exclaim, “I’ve never been there,” or maybe, “I think I went there when I was seven.”

We could call this newcomer’s phenomenon: when people are new to an area, many want to explore it, like my father did. This can help people feel more at home in their new place. On the other hand, people who grew up in an area often take their home for granted, so they don’t bother exploring outside their neighborhoods. During one summer job, I worked in a historical museum outside Vancouver, and met tourists from all over. One memorable visitor was a retired man who had always lived in New York City, but had never even toured the Statue of Liberty. “That’s something tourists do, not locals,” he explained. By thinking of some activities as “only for tourists,” he limited his own experience of his hometown, and probably enjoyed living in New York a lot less than he could have. When he visited Vancouver, he explored, but in his hometown, he never did.

The same thing happens here in Korea. One of the reasons a lot of foreigners in Korea become unhappy is because we stop exploring the way we did when we first came; we say “I went there in my first year” and stay home and watch TV. However Koreans are just as guilty of being unadventurous: because they take their hometown and home country for granted, they say “That’s for tourists” or “I went there when I was a kid,” and also stay home watching TV. The end result is the same: we wonder why our lives are dull. One of my most satisfying experiences is when a student or friend tells me about visiting a place, or trying a restaurant I recommended. They usually report having a great time. This reminds me that we don’t need to lose our adventurous spirit, and if we’ve stopped, it’s not hard to start exploring again. We are all capable of making our lives more enjoyable, if we just choose to try something new.

you can read more of Robert Ouwehand's writing in the Korea Herald, and at http://roboseyo.blogspot.com

Laser Show in Chunggyecheon

before it was cold, there was a cool laser art show up and down the Chunggyecheon with different laser demonstrations at different parts of the stream, several times an hours, most evenings. I uploaded it to Youtube, but never posted it at Roboseyo. Here's some video I took.

2 Weekends ago: Food at Sandang

I get behind on all the cool stuff I do from time to time, because my life is seriously like, just so awesome.

But especially when I have pictures, or if it makes my friends jealous of my, I like to post it on my blog, to rub it in, just how awesome I am.

OK enough of that... but seriously, I've had a few really enjoyable days that I haven't written about because I was busy either working, hanging out with Girlfriendoseyo the Awesome, or doing even more awesome stuff.

So here's an update on what I've been up to.

Sandang is a restaurant I heard about from the Seoul Eats guy, Dan. He's written numerous posts about Sandang: here's one.








It's a lovely restaurant, with a happy ball outside the restaurant: it's out in Yangpyeong, where restaurants are actually on grounds, rather then just being "second and third floor, XX building" the way they are downtown.



Nice place: I want to walk around there in the spring.





Nifty furniture: after the meal, they sent you to the second floor with a pot of coffee, and the second floor had all kinds of different spots to sit, lounge, and sip tea, depending on whether you wanted to sit on tables or cushions, in soft pillows or on arty chairs.



Girlfriendoseyo liked these chairs. I did too: the rounded back meant you could play the lean-back/balance relex game, and see how far you'd lean back before your inner ear told you to flinch.


And the food, dear readers: the food!


shrimp and shredded potato


the first time I ever ate grasshopper.

The crabs were one of the most beautifully presented dishes.




A small scallopy thing.


sushi


oysters


bit of beef: every major meat group was represented, and the flavors were unique: every one of them were simply prepared, with good ingredients, but instead of lots of spicing, they were then set next to some other flavor that drew out all the nuances of the tastes through contrast.


these little savory ball-thingys were made with potato, sweet potato, and other stuff, then covered with sauces that offset their tastes perfectly. They were crisp on the outside, and soft on the inside, and they stretched my vocabulary looking for other ways to say 'good'.






By the end of meal, after the Hanjungshik came out, with every last side dish a small miracle of its own, I was stuffed silly.


Here's a video of the visual highlight: the roasted acorn [update: my bad. roasted chestnuts], which they set on fire right at the table, and also a look at the full spread of side dishes that came out, and filled us to the gills, after we'd tried all the different specialty dishes: they filled us right to the top, with amazing food top to bottom, for our money.


Sandang is in Yangpyeong, about an hour by car outside of Seoul. It's a pretty little area near a river. You can learn more about it, and see more pictures, at Seoul Eats. It's pricier than Outback Steakhouse, but dear readers, even with a 90 minute drive before and after, the place, and the setting, and the food, and the food, and the food, was so good, it was amply, unhesitatingly, indubitably worth it.

So get out there and try some.

In the Herald Twice this Week, and Hats off to Ben, Andrea, and Dann

I'm in the Korea Herald twice this week: on Wednesday, talking about 2S2, the expat get-together. You can come, too - at 2pm in the Twosome Place coffee shop next to exit 1 of Anguk subway station, near Insadong.

Dress warmly because we're going to be outdoors, watching the Snowboarding competition/festival in Gwanghwamun Plaza. You can also check out the 2S2 blog, or see what else I've written about it at Roboseyo. I've had interest from a few people about starting new 2S2 pockets in other areas, so if you're thinking about it, too, please drop me a line.

Next: also in the Herald, I put in a plug for the Korean International Salsa Social - KISS in today's Herald. You can read about it here. It's a good time to get involved in the community: they're having a party tomorrow in Itaewon!

Finally, and here's the biggie:

Hats off to Dann Gaymer, Ben Wagner, Andrea Vandom, et al, for appearing on CBC Radio, probably Canada's most respectable news organization - "BBC of Canada" if you will -- sometimes called the Canadian news mecca. They're on there talking about Anti-English Spectrum's targeting of English teachers, and the visa requirements, and all that jazz. I just listened to the feature, and it's quite well done, and each of them explain themselves well.

You can check it out here. This is great, and a big step up from the somewhat sloppy report that was in the Canadian National Post earlier this week.

Good work, all... and a special nod must also go to Matt from Popular Gusts, who wasn't interviewed, but whose work publishing and spreading news about Anti-English Spectrum has been, in my opinion, pivotal in building the momentum that is now leading to this kind of coverage in the international media. The next question is how much international embarrassment is required before decision-makers start getting stuff done -- the tree isn't just falling in the forest anymore, thanks. But for now: Cheers all around! I owe each of you a beer or a latte, next time we meet.

Three Cheers For Ajumma!

Ajumma, the most irrepressible sector of Korean society, is finally, finally refusing to be repressed in North Korea.

Ajummas, the ones who were at the vanguard of forming the black market of goods for sale which saved the lives of many North Koreans when the state, and Kim Jong-Il's porky evilness failed to provide food for most people, are now leading the defiant movement against Kim Jong-il's vicious plan to deprive as many of his people as possible of the money they'd earned on that black market, just as winter approached.

It seems that Kim Jong-il would rather rule a country of 3 million docile people willing to accept being hand-fed, than a country of 15 million people who can fend for themselves. The difference between those numbers? Let'em starve this winter.

Read more about the ajummovement here.

Kim Jong-il man is the most evil thing I can imagine. Anybody who doesn't recognize that just doesn't get it.

Frankly, Afghanistan nothing: Kim Jong-il's actions in North Korea are, in my opinion, the greatest repudiation of Ban Ki-moon and the UN's effectiveness is how complacent they have been about the systematic starvation of North Korea's people, and the egregious ways he's been slowly robbing his people of any dignity they might have had.

I hope they rise, and I hope they get him. East-Asia'll be a mess for a while in the aftermath, but I can't believe how Kim Jong-il keep manages to top himself, evil-wise.

2S2 on Saturday December 12: Dress Warmly

Dress warmly on Saturday, dear readers. 2S2 is meeting, as usual, at 2pm, on the Second Saturday of the month, in the usual place: at the Twosome Place to the right of exit 1, Anguk Station.

From there, we're going to head down to Gwanghwamun Plaza, where there's this wild, crazy, awesome Snowboarding competition and festival all weekend, and we'll take part in the festivities. Come join us! But dress warmly. It's December, and the festival's outdoors.

So what is 2S2? Well, now it has a blog and a facebook group... nothing exists anymore unless it has a blog and a facebook group, does it?

You can read more about what it is, and what we're trying to accomplish, here, or here.

Wolfhound-inspired: more on Wolves

Dear readers:

Now that Wolfhound Pub has redeemed itself, now that I'm as full as a coffee mug with Wolf-love, it seems a good time to share a little more about wolves... and then tell you about the new occupant of my dog-house.

First: on the wolf-love side: gotta tell you, now that I've seen pretty much every great, good, and even OK Zombie movie, the pool-ball scene in "Zombie Strippers" made it pretty clear to me that I'd hit the bottom of the barrel, as Zombie films go. (Don't worry. I didn't watch the whole thing. The whole "Give-you-a-lap-dance-then-eat-you" thing was just too many levels of exploitation at once, and it was witless and charmless and really twelve kinds of not fun and not cool -- couldn't even enjoy it in the "so bad it's good" way: it was just "so bad it's, um, really bad") So I thought I'd try out another monster movie genre: Vampires were too obvious, what with the film industry's Robert Pattinson-based Twigasm, so I checked out a few wolfmannish movies.



Basically: 1. wolfman is the red-headed stepchild of iconic movie monsters: surprisingly few really good movies, and even the "good" ones were surprisingly weak
2. this is partially explained by the nature of lycanfolk: only turning into a wolf for three nights a month makes it hard to build dramatic tension into a powerful climax -- either the beginning of the movie's all long and slow, just for a single riveting (hopefully) scene once the moon finally rolls around (cf: An American Werewolf in London), or the whole story happens in a very short timeframe, which can make for great action, but not much character development.
3. The tawdriness of the "man in a wolf suit" effects and costuming of most of these werewolf movies. Especially after the gleeful gore of even 1980s zombie movies, the wolfman effects left me in the cold, for the most part. Wolf costumes, people in wolf suits, just aren't graceful or impressive-looking enough to catch my attention. So here's the rundown of my brief flirtation with werewolf movies, before I decided "Hey. It's December. Let's get christmassy and watch feel-good movies instead."



Saw: Dog Soldiers - excellent British take on Wolfman. Man in suit monsters were the weak point - lame silhouettes - but whenever the wolves WEREN'T onscreen, great action sequences, good setup (British special forces vs. werewolves), etc..
Ginger Snaps - top 3, more psychological than action-based, especially with the subtext of the sisterhood theme, along with the coming of age confusion. Werewolfism becomes an interesting stand-in for teen anxieties about menstruation.
Blood & Chocolate - possibly the best one of the lot, the two leads were strong, and the movie's best strength was actually using wolves for the transformations. Had a tone and mysical feeling the others lacked, and created a real feeling of a wolf pack that was intriguing.
An American Werewolf in London: weak sauce. Especially the early '80s effects, which were not sophisticated enough for my CG-spoiled eye, but not primitive enough (see '60s movies) to be fun in a campy way. A lot of lists had this as one of the top werewolf films, which is a big part of why I didn't get deeper into the genre.

Still need to see: Heard good things about The Howling, and Wolf, starring Jack Nicholson. Jack could read the phonebook and still be compelling and watchable, so I'll at least give it a try. That may be it for my foray into werewolf films, unless somebody tells me about another I really need to see. Warning: any mention of Underworld or Van Helsing will lead to a complete loss of credibility. And if I need to mention ditto for Twilight, why am I even talking to you?



For the record: the best movies I saw during the zombie kick:

Transcends the Genre: Army of Darkness

1. Lucio Fulci's Zombie (1979) (Straight up zombie terror)
2. Zombieland (witty, genre-savvy and self-referential - the best postmodern zombie film)
3. Night of the Living Dead (the original)
4. Dawn of the Dead (original)
5. Cemetery Man (a zombie art film starring Rupert Everett. I kid you not)
6. 28 Days Later (if it qualifies as a Zombie film; purists say it doesn't)
7. Dead Snow (best climactic zombie-slaying action sequence outside of Zombieland. Plus: Nazi Zombies!)
8. Shawn of the Dead (Zombieland's pacing was better; less action than Shawn)
9. Dawn of the Dead (the remake: running zombies don't do it for me as much as for others)
10. Day of the Dead (go Bub!)

hurt to leave out: "Evil" - a fun Greek zombie film, and "Dead Alive" - the Transformers 2 of Zombie films - so over-the-top goes it over, folds back on itself, and goes back over again, as if Zombie films were a splatter contest. Plus: the lawnmower scene, and the most unkillable zombies in the whole genre) The other top contender in the splatter contest: Planet Terror

And: Campy good: Flight of the Living Dead
Campy bad: all the Return of the Living Dead movies.

I Love the Wolfhound Forever

A while ago I had a gripe about the Wolfhound Pub in Itaewon - I even wrote a letter to them on my blog (see here) -- here was my gripe, to sum up:

Dear Wolfhound: Please either...
1. serve your coffee in a smaller mug, so that I don't feel ripped off by getting a coffee mug that's 40% full
2. fill your flurbing coffee mugs to the top, or at least near the top
3. charge less than three thousand won for four mouthfuls of coffee, when down the street, Rocky Mountain Tavern gives free coffee refills with all their breakfasts, and Starbucks gives nearly a PINT of coffee for a tiny bit more than the price of your tiny coffee puddle.

I ended off the letter with this:

it wouldn't take much to fix this problem. Just do it, and I'll love you forever.

Well, dear readers, I just got an e-mail from Wolfhound, and I hope they don't mind if I share it with you:

So, in response, I shall keep my promise to love them forever.

Dear readers, let me tell you about The Wolfhound Pub: (btw: this is a completely unpaid, message; I have not, and do not plan to benefit from writing this financially or in any other way; I'm writing this of my own volition and everything)

When I hanker for Fish'n'Chips, there's really only one place to go in Seoul:

Wolfhound Pub, which not only serves what are the best fish'n'chips I've had in Seoul, but which serves them up two for one on Tuesdays. In case you're a shark.

Seoul Eats just published their menu: go look.

Zenkimchi and Seoul Eats have gushed on about their burgers already, so I'm going to tell you about my own favorites:

1. the Irish Stew, which is nice
2. even more so: the beef and mushroom pie, which I like so much that I want to write it in all caps. Or at least italics.

It's a beef and mushroom stew with a flaky pastry over the top, which almost bursts with hot air when you poke it with a fork, and then deflates slowly into the stew.

Here's how it looks from the outside



and here's how it looks once you poke through that lovely pastry:

and ooh, dear readers, it is so good.

Here's the toad in the hole


The breakfast is good, and looking better these days, when a few of the former standout western breakfasts Really Muffed Theirs. So get on over there for your hangover brunch, or your British pub food, folks. The irish stew, the shepherd's pie, the fish'n'chips, are all among the better British Isles/UK-ish food you can find, they have Guinness and Alley Kat and Kilkenny on tap, so you can kick back with some good eats, and have a full cup of coffee while you're at it. And remember: Wolfhound cares what you think.*

:) *especially if you google bomb them, sez the cynic in me



But seriously, Wolfhound: thanks for listening. Congratulations on the new renovations, and good luck in the future. If you're asking, Girlfriendoseyo would be more easily convinced to come and have your great food if the first of your two floors were non-smoking. But still: good music, great food, thanks for being there, Wolfhound.

Another story that'll make you like Wolfhound: they had these popular wedge fries they served, but last winter, potato stocks were low quality. Rather than serve up inferior potato wedges, Wolfhound put up signs saying, "Until potato shipments improve in size and quality, we're taking potato wedges off the menu, because we'd rather not serve anything, than dish up rubbish 'taters to paying customers." Gotta respect that, yah? Yah.

-Roboseyo

Judge Not, Lest Ye...

So today, I was on the subway, and after boarding, I waited for the doors to close. As they were closing, I glanced at the sliding doors one spot over from the ones I'd entered, just in time to see a surprisingly ajumma-ish shape take a full swan-dive onto the subway floor as the doors closed on her legs.

The first thing that went through my head, I'm not proud to say, is "How typically ajumma. She was probably running to catch the train and got caught. Or maybe she was so focused on the empty seat where she planned to throw her handbag, that she didn't notice the doors closing on her." This ungenerous thought, along with the usual "slow down for a car crash" impulse led me to crane my neck a little to see a bit more of the lady causing the commotion.

It was an older Korean lady, but as she got up, she was hunched so far down in her wine-colored coat, that I realized she was a lot older than that robo-ajumma who occupies the stereotype in my mind. Not only that, but her shamble belied a fair bit of pain in one of her legs, and the speed at which she moved toward a seat that someone courteously offered her (yay Korea!) made me realize that, even without a hurt leg, she wouldn't have been able to do that ajumma-sprint I'd imagined had led her to getting stuck in the door.

She got stuck in the door because she was old. And she moved slowly. And I realized how quickly I'd judged her.

It gets really easy to judge people on the other side of a language barrier. Really, really easy. And yeah, sometimes we foreigners catch the short end of that stick... I won't venture to say how often either side catches the long or short end, but I'll definitely say that if we want to have any foot to stand on at all, when we complain about discrimination and judgement and getting hairy eyeballs and all that stuff, let's make sure we're not alienating the Koreans around us at the same time, by treating them as less than human, simply because we can't understand them.

I still remember the growing awkward, and then hostile, feeling on a subway car, when I was riding with a girl who spent a whole 25 minute trip slagging Korea viciously in her "outdoor voice," when I looked around and realized that several people on the car understood every word she said.

Don't let's be that kind of foreigner, hey? Especially at Christmas, I guess.

Ask The Expat has a similarly-themed post in which he coins the term KDS, or Korean Derangement Syndrome. Worth the read.

Chris in SK also makes the point with a photo.

Hub of Sparkle Down: Event Listings for the Weekend

Tiny Tim wishes you a merry Christmas.

Hub of Sparkle's down, infected by a nasty virus. So I'll put up a few event postings here: I'm on a bunch of facebook Korea group mailing lists, and I'd like to share a few of them: Christmas is coming and it's time to look at some of what's going on out and about.

Tuna Attack (blog here) is a new underground 'zine. On the 5th (Saturday) there's a debut party. You can go. Entry, 13,000W 9:30 @ Bowie Club, Hongdae. More info at the blog. Map here.

Seoul Style is also having a debut partay, including a fashion gala put on by feetmanseoul.

You can win tickets to a concert, courtesy of 10 Magazine, by voting for your favorite Korean movie here. (survey here)

Next, and this is one I encourage all of you to attend: tomorrow there's a World AIDS Day fundraiser/celebration in Hongdae. The event is called Rubber Seoul, and for a 10 000 won cover, you can get into a bunch of clubs, and buy t-shirts, and do all kinds of other things that will help people living with HIV/AIDS. The whole shebang starts at 8:30 at Jane's Groove, and from there, have a blast!

If you want to receive updates on stuff like this, Uber Rad Life...Korea is a Facebook group you should join: there's tons of stuff there for anyone who's looking to bolster their fun quotient in Korea. Uber Rad Life wants you to know about Tokyo Underground, too. If you like DJs, it's for you.

More from my facebook inbox:

Animal Rescue Korea is having a food and accessory drive on December 11th: more info here.

The other, more frightening Tiny Tim ALSO wishes you a merry Christmas.
(who is the scary Tiny Tim?)