Chosun Bimbo

In the News

Well it is official. I will be returning to the Shakey Isles Come March having voted for the socialist government (again) who promise me no more interest and who say they will offer me an amnesty on all the non-resident payments on my student loan that frankly, I havn't paid. "Ooh Ahh Labour" (pronounced Labah)

Worst thing about not being in NZ at the moment...Missing the (Premier?) of Minginui, Luxton's movie on the old school forestry dpt. town of the same name. Lumiere gives it a pretty good review here and here. So I guess I'll have to hit up adam for a private screening when I get back.

Image ripped off from Luxton (sorry Adam)

The Holidays drag on. Three days of class starting at 9am and I am buggered. Tuesday night I came home and fell asleep at 5pm for a couple of hours. And BTW I can't believe they shot Kate. More of the same early starts for the next 3 weeks or so. BUT 2 DAYS HOLIDAY coming up on the first and second of August. Whoopee! (Without any hint of sarcasim.) Sunday will go to Daejon to watch Korea play China in the soccer. And Thursday next week try and make it to Chonju to watch South Korea play North Korea - Freakin exciting that one will be lots and lots of pictures for sure, but not too happy with the logistics on that one, we'll have to wait and see.

Pictures from Samwon Garden BTW - really good trad. Korean BBQ restaurant - all expensive and swanky on it

and here is some stuff I jotted down on the back of a napkin on the KTX a couple of months ago - nothing of a literary masterpiece, but worthy of 5th form English at any rate.

Yongsan station is soomething of a hulking mass of concrete, glass and light. By day ten storeys of glass reflect the Seoul suun. By night it is lit by hundreds of neon lights. Like most modern pieces of architecture in the capital, it's wide open precints, sharp lines and general clenliness are in stark contrast to it's immediate surrounds: The usual maze of crowded alleyways and in Yongsan's case Seoul's red light district. Or should that be Pink light district, a virtual rabbit warren of little shops walled entirely by glass where prostitutes preen and make themselves up ready for some dodgy Ajossi wanting to spend a few quid.

Seoul station looks as if it was designed by the same mind - a castle of gilt steel and glass in the middle of the city. Nestled under it's arm, just to the right, the original station (built by the Japanese I think). In it's lap a large open plaza - the focal point of many pro-democracy demonstrations in the '80s and nowadays just as many labour protests. (Aaaah capitalism....) Seoul station though, lacks the cleanliness of it's cousins, brought about in no small part by the huge numbers of homeless peopple that congregate there day and night. The men tend to keep to themselves, drinking soju, reclining in the sun, the women however acoust travelers at the foot of the large staircase leading to the main entrance. Are they begging? Perhaps spreading the 'good word'? My language skills, and their odour, preclude me from asking.

Both Images are from Yongsan Stn. Second one was with out a tripod and very shaky but hey...?!

Kewishes in Korea

<BEFORE WE BEGIN: if you click on the photos a bigger one will pop up like magic. just click the little X in the top right hand corner to make it go away!>

This is the Pauline and Mark visit report for the 15th - 17 July 2005.

FRIDAY

Picked Mum and Mark up at Incheon at around lunch time and headed into Seoul on the Airport bus. The bus ride took some time, but it gave a good chance to catch up on what Mum and Mark have been doing - or rather the progress of their trip. From Memory their itenary went something like:

Auckland to San Fransisco - Las Vegas - London - Portugal - Spain (for a day) - France - Greece - Switzerland - Austria - Germany - KOREA and then they're off to Tailand and Singapore before heaading back home. 9 and a half weeks in total. Truely amazing trip if you ask me. They were starting to dislike living out of a suitcase (Amazingly they each had a small suitcase each, one shared for toiletries etc and carry on - The bag I took up to Seoul was like twice the size and I came up for 3 nights!)

Mark Looking very wealthy.

Then there was the worst taxi ride on earth from Seoul station to Seongdong Gu - lasted maybe an hour and the driver was shit. Understandibly I got really shitty by the end of it - more so than Mum. To continue the run we arrived at the hotel and our room wasn't ready for an hour. That situation was quickly diffused however when I quickly said we would have some 'Service' coffee - and so the three of us had a further chance to catch up.

Mum hasn't given up smoking! Her plan was to do so aboout a week before leaving as the rest of the travelling party are non-smokers but apparently it lasted about a day and a half (actual accounts differ between Mark and Mum) before Mark urged Pauline to go and purchase some durries. - I knew that would happen!

There was some concern on my part about the dress code for the DMZ on Saturday as mum didn't have a shirt with colar and sleeves and we were a bit iffy about sneakers. It was of course a thinly veiled excuse to go shopping. So Friday night saw us in the heart of Chong-No looking for a shirt and shoes - which we found with little trouble.

Chong-No at night.

I took the parents to Kiimbab Jong-kuk for dinner knowing that it is a pretty simple chain restaurant where I knew what was on the menu. They aren't fans of Kimchi (apparently they had some on the plane from Frankfurt) but Mum quite likes Bibimbab and Mark had Cheese Donkas while I had probably the worst dokbukki I've encountered in a while. (I'm sure they tone it down whenever they see a westerner ordering.) Then it was back to the hotel and off to bed for the DMZ on Saturday. Mark and I popped around the corner to have a couple of quite beers at the ministop and have a bit of a talk. We worked out he has been 'around' for ten years now (well since I was in fifth form at any rate) I took a sleeping pill before going to bed and apparently I did all this stuff that I don't remember - which leads me to wonder what I do when I take one at home when I'm alone...

Me and Mum outside the Chong-No Bellfry

SATURDAY

Woke with a start at 05:30 when Mark brushed passed the bed on the way to the bathroom. I'm really not used to sharing a space with other people. But we made it to the USO spot on time after negotiating the Subway. Mum and Mark were really impressed with the Seoul Tube in comparison to the Paris Metro which they found a bit unreliable and the London underground which they said was really dirty and smelled of piss.

I was a bit wary of what Mum and Mark would think of the DMZ.

A Communist

While it holds multitudes of interest for a political science scholar (Or science student for that matter Kroy). I wondered what 2 middle aged middle classers from Pukekohe might think. But the way I see it is if you go to Egypt you see the Pyramids, Rome the colosseum and Korea the DMZ.

Just like at Buckingham Palace - They don't move an inch!

(BTW Mum mentioned specifically that she thought the Pantheon in Rome was Awesome! - Go Marcus Agrippa!) And I'm pretty sure they enjoyed it.

Mum and Mark

While they were climbing up and down the 3rd infiltration tunnel I sat outside and had a smoke and bumbed into this Canadian Girl from Jonju (?) who's been here 7 months and had a chat to her. She was kinda cool, and said a lot of things about living in Korea that rang true with my experience. Then we started to chuck rocks over the fence trying to set of land mines...but that's another story entirely. We saw her and her friends back iin Yongsan when we went and got a coffee and of course lame ass me didn't say a thing...stupid stupid stupid. So if you're reading this Candice (I'm sure you are) Big ups!

The Bridge of No Return.

Guarding the thin line...

We got back to the hotel and chilled out for an hour or so before Ken came and picked us up at about 6 for dinner. Again I was a bit wary of what Mum and Mark might think. Not that there should be any sort of indictment on Ken, or them for that matter, but you know how Mum makes me feel. Anyway we went to Samwon Garden in Gangnam Which I have heard lots about And it was Fantastic!

(L-R) Ken, Me, Mum, Mark

Korean BBQ as it should be with all the trimmings and Ken being the PERFECT guide to the culinary feast before us. Again Mum and Mark weren't too hot on the Kimchi, And Mark never ceases to amuse when he is trying to use chopsticks. The meat was delicious (Imported from Australia) the setting beautiful with trees and waterfalls and live music, and good company. Only one bottle of Soju was cracked open on my insistance as the shit a)makes me go mental and b) gives me a shit of a hangover the next day. However Mum and Mark being seasoned white spirits drinkers (Bacardi uuugh!) quite liked it. Ken graciously and most gerously paid for the meal, but I got my own back by buying and subsequently giving him a bottle of Chivas Regal which he was a bit suss about carrying home on public transport! A coffee later and some live music it was back to the hotel, quick email to Auntie Di and another sleeping pill and off to bed for Sunday.

SUNDAY


Awake pretty bloody early for a Sunday - 9am...? Breakfast at the Hotel was average and later in the day we were told the restaurant wouldn't be open for dinner. (Actually the hotel was pretty below par overall). We started the day at Yongsan electronics Market as I had convinced Mum and Mark that they should really join the 21st century and buy a digital camera. The picked up a pretty good OEM Nikon for W290000(lets say NZ$300 or so) 5 Mega pixel with charger, batteries a case and 256 SD card. Despite my best efforts they refused to take my old Sony and leave me there new one, so I went upstairs and picked up a copy of Lumines for my PSP because I am sick of my bootleg memory stick version (with no sound) craping out all the time and a new screen cover for the PSP.

A truely horrible picture of me taken with a truely awesome new camera.

From there it was Starbucks and Namdaemun - no the actual gate not the market as the Seoul authorities have recently paved in part of the road and you can walk right up to it. More photos and then Namedaemun market.

Mum and Mark at Namdaemun - or the sothern gated entrance to the old city.

Mum and Mark head off into the market for some shopping - This photo has not been altered - just use of flash outside on an otherwise hazey smoggy Seoul day.

That place is seriously dangerous to the wallet man! I was content to not spend anything (for a change) but the number of wicked stuff led me to spend about W150000 without even thinking. (Not counting the W10000 umbrella I got when it started to rain for all of about a minute!) I purchased a pair of Nike sneakers, some new pants for work, a Polo cap, a couple of knock off Louis Vuitton keyrings (one of which has already made it to Yun hee) and the umbrella. Mum and mark scored numerous t-shirts a hole bunch of tacky souviner type stuff aimed at the three cousins and Mum sneaked off and bought another pair of shoes. Then it was back to Starbucks and the Hotel for a couple of hours, another dinner at Kimbab Jong-kuk (same meal but with a dozen mandu and I had cheese noodles instead) and finally goodbyes at Yongsan Station at around 9:30 on Sunday night as I headed back to Nonsan. I momentarily thought of having a bit of a cry but held it back and watched the parents walk off as I headed to the KTX card holder lounge for my free coffee and paper.

Mum and Mark were scheduled to fly out of Incheon at 10:15 Monday morning. I havn't heard from them so assume they have made it to the Bangkok Sheraton. (Lucky buggers!)

Seeing the parents after a year and a half is a bit freaky. To say the least. There was one point on Saturday when I was forced to remember some of the reasons why it's good to be so far away from them (Fuck mum can go on...) but only briefly. And of course Mum brought me my latest student loan statement and shit from child support. But the overall feeling imbued by there visit is homesickness and a sense of having to get my shit together over the next 6 months as to what I'm going to do with the rest of my life. It's amazing how much you can miss your mum let alone the rest of your family - apparently Blair is like 15 and Kayla is coming upto 11!!!!!! Who would have thought?! So I guess in summation the Parental visit to the Republic of Korea went of without a hitch and was a success. A good time was had by all.

In other news here is some of what I've been doing to entertain the kids since they are on holiday and out of control. My two classes in Room 202 were treated to two very distinct renderings of Auckland's sky tower made out of glue and CD cases:

and in my junior junior little guys class we made hats with our names on them:

such is the life of an English Teacher in Korea.

Bastielle day

Ahhh spring. A time when the trees in Korea seem to be an endless green. The best thing is the rains, because it's so wet the mosquitoes die quickly and in abundance. The downside is all the spiders grow fat feasting on their dead corpses. The hallway on my apartment's floor is strung with hundreds of webs each morning. Every time I walk through one I squeal like a girl. I'm not entirely sure what my neighbours think but hey that's the downside of living in such close proximity - surely.

I mean do I complain when they are outside my door at three o'clock in the morning nattering on? Well no because a) I'm still awake and b) I don't know how to complain in Korean as it is. What I do object to is the Lady at 203 letting her little girl tricycle up and down the corridor at 7 in the morning making all manner of noises, I don't care if everyone else on the floor, in the city, or in Korea has already left home and gone to work I AM STILL ASLEEP! But not for long.

Monday week (The 25th - circled in big red pen on the calendar) sees summer classes begin - that is to say screaming kids on holiday who don't want to be at the English language school their parents are forcing them to attend - at 9 o'clock in the god damn morning. I dunno...there are some definite discipline issues in most of my classes at the moment - it is what Bruce Owen would term the silly season - end of term no real school only activities etc, but I'm having a hell of a time keeping the noise down, keeping the kids sitting in their seats blah blah blah. Still no blow back from The Boss' - so far so good.

As i write I am speeding along at 300km/h in the KTX - Korea's marvelous bullet train, en route to Seoul where tomorrow I will pick Mum and Mark up at the airport. (That is if they weren't blown up while in London.) Now how's this for an indictment on the People of Korea? My fabulous friend Ken is taking Mum, Mark and ME out to dinner while in Seoul on Saturday night. It is something of a generalisation but Ken is living proof that Korean people are pretty nice folks who have a pretty big interest in making sure everyone is happy. Makes you feel really sorry for Korea under Japanese occupation in the 20s and 30s and during the war - Japan is a real dick!

The Korean Navy launched a new ship today and called after Dokdo - the easternmost islets of Korean Territory. Basically two little uninhabitable rocks with no use to anyone that Japan claims as it's own. Now usually I wouldn't involve myself in international territory disputes, but I really think Japan is full of shit. The Japanese call the Islands 'takashima' - laterally, Island of bamboo. IT'S TWO DESOLATE ROCKS IN THE MIDDLE OF THE EAST SEA. THE NEAREST BAMBOO IS 1000 MILES AWAY!!!!!! Idiots!

So with any luck I will get to post this sometime tonight, but it may well be after the weekend. In that case it will be accompanied by numerous photo's etc of the long awaited reunion of Mother and son.

-Out.

Friday night football

Got a call from Ken on Thursday after work inviting me to dinner. I havn't seen him for I think 6 weeks we worked out in the end. He has been busy travelling to and from the outer reaches of inner Mongolia (or is that the inner reaches of outer Mongolia?). No seriously He has been to China and Tailand recently. I am very jealous.

I met Ken, James and the head of manufacturing at Ken's work for dinner at about 9 on Friday. Mmmmmm Korean BBQ. This isn't a very good shot as it shows the table closer to the end of the meal lacking the steaming mountain of suculent juicy beef on the grill.But of course what Korean BBQ meal would not be complete without fatty pork rinds?

I love pork rinds.

The rest of the evening was a bit of a blur in that after james left to take care of a visiting Japanese delegation Ken and I found our way to Ooops. I think I got home around three o'clock this morning but I can't really be sure.

Bond...James Bond. (Or so he keeps telling me)
And look! It's the dodgiest guy in Nonsan! (The white guy surely!)

Finally last weekend I made what could be the discovery of a life time while looking about the DVD selection at Yongsan. The Korean edition of Peter Jackson's best film: Bad Taste.

 

Thursday night football

Ah yes, the much anticipated parent's seminar on Wednesday morning was much over-hyped (well by me at any rate) largly because everything was in Korean. Still, if, in the words of 'The Boss', it "increases the students" it can't be altogether bad. Especially in terms of job security in what is possibly the worst Korean Economy since the IMF stuck their grubby little fingers in during 1997.

Where are the parents? I'm pretty sure they were out of London sometime last week and are lounging in the sun on a Greek island, rather than being syuck on the tube during yesterdays London 'Terror attack'.

Truely disturbing Korean Childhood behaviour: In New Zealand and the states yopu have the wedgie, where ones undergarments are uncerimoniously pulled as far out of your pants as possible, and there are variations along the same theme in countless places. The Korean equivilant is somewhat more disturbing and involves the insertion of fingers in the anus of unsuspecting victims as far and as forcefully as possible. The trend seems to be an annual thing as I recall a speight of these Hopuati incedents taking place last year between the kids. Korean kids are pretty tough though. I've seen a couple of them come off their bikes. No tears (maybe one or two if noones looking). No running off to mum, they just pick themselves up and carry on. Well thats the boys. The girls are a completely different situation. My feeling is that girls in general are pretty pampered from an early age so any afront to their regular treatment and they burst into tears at a drop of a hat. On Tuesday night there was a documentary on Arirang TV about young korean women joing the army (which is quite out of the ordinary in Korea) as Nurse Officers. I mean if it were me I would expect a pretty rough ride if I joined the army. Needless to say they were all bawling like infants for most of the time.

Frankly it dosn't bode well for me in terms of a certain little girl I'm going to have to deal with for the next 17 years (at least).

God I've let another week pass without posting - truely slack - and influenced by large amounts of alcohol imbibed over that time. Wednesday (after the parents thing and a truely horrible day when one of the kids decide to throw a few punches (she's like 6 years old and all of about 3 feet tall - but I could take her)) I found my way to Ooops, rather than taking the time to post. Anyway it basically involved me practicing my (really) bad korean on all the new waitresses and sitting until 2am drinkning huge glasses of Kalua with Yunhee, who was really pissed that I stood her up last weekend for dinner. Ooops!

Last weekend saw a shopping spree in Seoul develop most unexpectidly and along with a hundred bucks worth of PSP games and a frickin' awesome hard case for the expensive little game system I picked up a few more dodgy bootleg CDs. Thus the second installment of the Bimbo movie review ensues:

Sin City
Starring: The guy from Die Hard, The guy from 21 Grams and Frodo Baggins

Despite a promising write up in the Korean Times a couple of weeks ago and genuinly interesting storylines Sin City never lives up to the hype. The 'star studded' cast lends absolutly no weight in terms of storytelling and despite much praise in the medis I found the visual presentation, black and white with occassional colour splashes, wholly distracting. The only interesting bit: Frodo cutting up people and eating them.
Bimbo rating: CRAP

Batman Begins
Starring: Christian Bale, Michael Cain, Tom Cruise's girlfriend, Morgan Freeman, Liam Neeson

I guess nothing will ever eclipse the first time Michael Keaton put on the bat-eared cowl, but Batman Begins does an alright job and is probably more consistant with the original DC comics than the Caped Crusader's three (four?) previous outings. Christian Bale is a pretty good actor but I can't get over his lines as a nine year old in the Spielburg flop "Empire of the Sun" ("Corsair-Cadillac of the sky!" he shouts to John Malkovich) And occassionally you wish he'd cut up Katie Holmes American Psycho style
Bimbo rating: NOT BAD

Mr and Mrs Smith (personal favourite of the new girl at Ooops)
Starring: Brad Pitt and the Tomb Raider Biatch

A so called romantic comedy some of the scenes are truely hilarious others dull and improbable but a well rounded bit of escapist fun in the end. Pitt and Jolie work well on screen (and off too if the 'loids be believed). There are numerous references to both of their previous films for those of you who pay attention, Brad Pitt holstring his weapons Lara Croft style, A guy wearing a fight club t-shirt, Pitt's Kevlar vest resembling his armour from troy, jolie in Tomb Raider-esq body suit and so on.
Bimbo rating: GOOD

우리들을 한국인을 말하는 시키십시요

어제 나는 서울에 갔다.  재미 이었다.  그것은 뜨거 웠다.  너무 비가 왔다.  나는 매물 갔다.   재미 이었다.  나 는 한국 의 특별하게 한국 여아를 좋아한다.  나는 얼마간 불법  DVD 영화를 구매했다.  그들은 좋그리고 비쌌다.

you can google a translation here by copying the text into the box but the english version of what I said makes little sense. It's kinda funny though.

bit long this one...

Havn't posted in a week for a number of reasons. Can't be bothered chief among them. I mean very busy...yes very busy. SO this one is a bit of a long'un but you'll be ok. Sit down infront of the fan, pour yourself a tall Ice (green) tea and read on. And forgive me for using 'YEAH BOY' excessivly but I've watched 'Shaun of the Dead' like three times this week.

Here's a recent shot of the Chonan skyline:

How hardcore am I? I have developed what appear to be contusions along both of my thumbs consistant with overuse of my Playstation Portable for extended periods of time - YEAH BOY! Indeed near the end of each day I start experiencing symptoms of PSP withdrawal and often rush home to play the damned thing :-) I'm such a fan boy - it's rediculous, but not as rediculous as my new quest to mod my PS2 - more on that later.

The temperature here has cooled by a couple of degrees with the onset of the Monsoon seaason.; That is to say it has rained pretty much constantly and at times quite heavily, since Sunday, and will continue to do so for the next couple of weeks by all accounts. Hopefully it will; let up by the time mum and Mark get here - 2 weeks from today infact. Currently they are experiencing the hottest summer in Europe for some time. Ah I should count my blessings - before you know it winter will be here again and I would rather suffer through balmy weather than the cold. The thunder and lightening accompanying the monsoon is pretty cool - even though I was woken at 4 on Tuesday morning by a thunder clap that seemed to be right above the apartment building.

Here is the independance (from Japan) Monument in Chonan

It's funny how the focus at work often changes unexpectidly. While the 6 o'clock class is finally beginning to settle down the 5 o'clock class - which I share with 'The Boss' are turning fucking mental on it! Occassionally 'The Boss' will poke his head through the door weilding a sstick and tell them to shut up but it has little effect and serves to make me feel incompetent (I( know I know - it's the sad sad truth). But I mean after a year and a half at this you'd think I could control a class..? By way of contrast though I set them all up for a phone class on Tuesday. Not only did they all answer the phone at the right time, but they were all pretty good, so I guess I can't be doing too bad. Ultimately I would like to seperate the class into two halves, but the fact that we are one teacher down at the moment makes it a bit prohibative. (and 'The Boss' doesn't seem to be activly seeking a replacement which might turn round and bite him in the ass come Friday fortnight when I bugger off for the day).

In a totally unrelated vein I'd like to say that yesterday was payday and I still had money in the bank from last payday - YEAH BOY!

In other (money related) news I have some questions for the current New Zealand minister of Education. If you earn $39000 a year in New Zealand you have about 200 bucks taken out of your pay before tax to pay back your loan. ($2400 a year) Why then if you earn roughly the same in another country  (Taking into account ForEx) why do you have to pay 3 times more???? Mother fuckers! Personally I blame Wyatt Creach - National Ass! Even still, If I get my ass to the Embassy sometime this month to register on the electoral roll, The government has lost my vote. (They've lost my money too, I ain't pay that you fuckers!)

The Yasakuni shrine: Source of recent Japanese - Korean angst:Last post was the movie review, Today I present the Bimbo album review. Recently I installed a new file sharing program on my laptop after the venerable KIWI ALPHA stopped working unless you purchased some seedy license for dodgy adware, so in the spirit of stealing music from artists I downloaded the first disk of Moby's 3rd album 'Hotel" (Limited Ambient Edition).

To be honest it's a bit more 'happy clappy' than 18 and not as, how could I put it, 'experimental' as PLAY or The PLAY B Sides. That's not to say that some of the tracks aren't catchy. I particularly like track 2 'Raining Again' (very appropriate at the moment) and track 4 'Lift Me Up'. There is definately a Pop-ish progression from Play (Remember how cool I thought I was 'cos My first copy of Play was from Marbecks and I had it before just about everyone else) (although I think just about every track was licensed for one commercial or another or that horrible sitcom with the fat chick from Cheers.) To 18 (tracks from which I hear every so often on BBC news).
Bimbo Rating: GOOD

Of course one of the things with stealing downloading music is lack of cover art. I have seen the hotel website and it is that cool 1970s-esq french all rounded corners animation that I particularly like so I would like to get hold of the cover sometime just for a look.

Ciggie vending machines: what a fantastic idea!

Anyway I'm off to download the new iTunes software which apparently has podcast support which would be sooooooooo much easier for getting engadget podcasts and the like rather than the clunky RSS readers people have been hocking on the internet for months so I will let you know whether it's worth a go or not fairly shortly. So I had best put a shirt on and head off to work for the usual Friday malarky.