As I've mentioned before, it's been fairly gray here for a few weeks now.  This week, we've been getting peeks of sunshine, and I even had a sunny beach day on Saturday at beautiful Hyeopjae. Did a little snorkeling with Rob and we got called out of the water by the amazing Korean lifeguards which I can swim circles around with no legs.  Their rationale was that we were out of the 'designated swimming area' and were in a dangerous 3-4 feet of water.  They took out their rubber boat, motored over to us, leaving hundreds of Korean (incapable of swimming) standing all alone in the dangerous 2-3inch waves coming through and blew their whistles for about 5 minutes until we noticed.   Since we were close to some rocks, the 'lifeguards' didn't want to get to close, and risk getting wet, or touching something that wasn't sand.  They made no attempt to get in the water and alert us, just sat about 20m away, blowing.  Once Rob and I realized what was going on, we were basically forced to climb atop the sharp and slipper lava rocks, where we could easily break an ankle (especially Rob), get a concussion or a nasty gash.  This was definitely a lot safer than casually swimming the extra 30m to get back to the sand near where we were sitting....  It's absurd here how over-protective the Korean lifeguards are.  I think a lot of it has to do with their fear of the water, not the fear of people actually hurting themselves.  A few weeks ago, an ex-pat surfer supposedly had to paddle over and rescue a Korean stuck on the rocks at Jungmun while the lifeguards stood looking at him blowing their whistles.  That's what I need when I'm drowning, somebody to blow a whistle at me and let me know that I shouldn't be drowning.  I'd definitely stop at that point.    So anyway, Saturday we even played a little American Football in the sand.  I easily would have traded Marian for Rob.  Their skills were about the same, but I think she had a little more heart. 
School has stayed 'very very so-so'.  Nothing really new to report.  Our kids attempted to put on a little dance for a local school festival a few weeks ago which apparently was a disaster.  They spent nearly 3 weeks solid of 2 hours per day practicing a routine for 'Under the Sea' from 'The Little Mermaid'.  I designated myself the sound technician, so I merely pressed pause/play on the cd player for all 30 hours of in school practice.  (There were unfortunately way too many surf-sessions and late nights where that song was repeating over and over again in my head.)  The kids learned a little bit of the song in English, and elaborate fish and lobster costumes were rented for the kids to perform in.  Unfortunately they didn't take into account that the leader of one of the dance lines freezes under the slightest pressure.  Little Mary...  So cute, with her chubby little face and dimples.  But from the report, she didn't look too cute when she froze on stage and ruined the routine for the school.  I heard it wasn't even 'little kid funny', it was just embarrassing.  I do feel sorry for the kids that actually paid attention and tried, but I think it was a pretty big undertaking for such young kids.  And seriously, we're an English school, do we really need to be dancing instead of learning more English?  I guess it's all about trying to appear like we're making an effort. 
Still no decision on my trip out of here though.  Paul and I are starting to think that a few weeks just driving up and down the east coast of Australia might be worth it.  Indo is extremely rainy in January, and therefore could be a giant mud puddle.  Australia will be hot, sunny and have pretty consistent surf.  Plus, it'd be nice to hear some form of native English again.  There's also a trip in August for 3 nights-4 days for about $430usd to China that I'm thinking about taking.  It includes airfare, meals and I'd get to see the Great Wall, Forbidden City, Tienanmen Square and a few other things.  This could be my only chance to see that stuff, and it's a great price.  I'm still on the fence, but if I can find somebody to share a room with, I think I have to do it.  Any thoughts?

Mary. (Meg's Photo)

Thanks Meg/Paul

I had a great 4 1/2 hour surf session with Pavi (Paul) today.  It was definitely a great relief, and surfing just seems to melt all my stress and worries away.  The waves were nothing incredible, about head-high, sectiony and breaking at different points.  It's still better than the average day in Folly.  I had a few good waves were I made connections to other waves inside, and ended up with good long rides.  During some of the close-out waves, I could still get a good drop-in, go around the whitewater and shoot straight up the wave, launching myself into the air.  It's not a very difficult exit, but it's fun everytime.  I'm like a little kid, with this big grin on my face when I see it coming.  It's just so nice to go out in the ocean with friends goof around, talk about anything, get a great workout and catch some decent waves.  I feel like my surfing is getting a little better.  I'm still not good, but I can tell big differences in the way I surf now as compared to last fall.  I have a little more confidence and am turning a little tighter.  It's great after all this time to finally be a 'competent' surfer.  Basically a surfer that doesn't wipeout everytime, but only every couple waves.  I'm still really nervous surfing over reef, in hollow conditions, but I guess that will come with time.  There's a guy here that's been surfing for over 20 years, and he just kills it in all the conditions, just like the South Africans, so it's good to pick up techniques and advice from them.   The reason I named this blog entry 'Surfing Purgatory' is because this place is just so 'in the middle'.  It's not great, it's not bad, but it is better than Folly.  Plus we're still in the 'rainy season' (I've used way too many quotes so far...) and it's jsut been gray every day.  The sun has peaked out once or twice in the past week, but it's just been cloudy with the occasional rain.  I think Rob jinxed us when he said that it had been an unsually mild rainy season and that it was ending soon.   Apparently it just keeps going.
  I still haven't made any decisions about my surf trip in January, but Indo is lookin bad.  Not because of the bombings, but because it's the rainiest month, and dirt roads don't handle rain too well.  Paul and I are still researching and looking into the Caroline Islands/Micronesia, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines and a couple other spots, but in the end it's going to come down to the airfare.  I was talking to one of the Southies, Grant, today about Indo and how I was nevervous going there, being a mediocre surfer and he made a good point that no matter where I go, if there are enough waves, I'll be able to find one that suits my ability.   Well, I'm pretty exhausted, so I might just watch some TV or read and pass out for the night.  Another crazy Saturday night, right?

Thanks Meg/Paul!

Still don't really have time to post about all the recent adventures, but I thought I'd throw in a couple small updates and rebut my previous blog. 

I recently visited the Peace Museum which documents Japan's brutal occupation of the island with some very graphic photos, a movie with AMAZING English commentary from a native speaker, some artifacts and an unguided tour through some of the dugout cave system.  It was a pretty powerful museum and very interesting.  It was just unfortunate that when they're showing videos of bodies being dumped into a mass grave, the commentator is making comments like 'Killings all over, there and here', or "Peace good everywhere, end of war Pacific good for all'.  You probably had to be there, but it was tough to not crack a smile, but when we did, we all felt like asses.  But seriously, if you are doing a voice-over for a movie, don't you at least read the script in correct English instead of Kenglish? 
So after the museum, we hit up the cliffs at Hwasun and did some serious jumping off a cliff that was probably over 30 feet.  It's a rough guess, but you can check out the pictures for yourself and judge. 
Lauran was supposed to leave last Sunday, but she ended up getting a nasty flu and is stuck here till Saturday.  It's a mixed blessing.  I enjoy having her here, but it sucks that she's in such bad shape.

As for Korean culture:

-  Koreans can be some of the most generous people you've ever met.  I just mentioned Halla-bongs (big-delicious oranges) to my wonderful co-teacher Candy, and she actually went to her relatives' orchard, picked up a bag, and drove all the way to Homeplus (where I was shopping) to drop them off for me.  She could have waited till the next day and given them to me at work, but she made the trip to give me basically $30 worth of Halla-bongs.  Candy has also sponsored a few trips to the Norebang (private Karaoke booth with food and booze) and our other coteachers have taken us all out for some very expensive dinners. 

-  Korean kids do way too much work, but know how to have fun, even if it a slightly homo-erotic manor.  Kids here will be in different schools from 8am till 8-10pm here.  It's crazy.  And they even go to school on Saturdays.  (Suckers)  But when the teenagers go to the beach, they have no problem tackling each other in the sand, and then throwing somebody into the ocean.  And they aren't embarassed to get down in the their see-through plaid silk underwear to play their wrestling games.  Even our female co-teachers which have kids and fulltime jobs can get a little crazy and sing their hearts out at the Norebang. 

-  Koreans can be really helpful.  Lauran has a nasty flu right now, and my co-teacher Christina took time out of her Saturday morning to take her to the hospital and help with translations and make sure we didn't get ripped off.  Obviously Christina probably had something better to do, but she didn't seem to think twice about helping us out. 

-  Random Koreans have no qualms with telling you you are nice, handsome, sexy or complimenting your body out of the blue.  Sometimes it can be awkward, other times it can be a nice pick-me-up.  I can honestly say that Lauran has had more comments than I have, but I've had a few.  Unfortunately one of them was that I had 'Evil Eyes' because you could see through them.  Millions of people here with brown/black eyes, and just a few hundred/thousand with green/blue eyes. 

-  You don't have to tip in Korea, and your bartender friends love to give you free shots.  Definitely helps when you're low on money.  Also, you often get free 'service'.  Just one example, after one late night surf session, we got out of the ocean and were lucky enough to still have a halla-bong vendor milling around at the top of the cliff.  I went to purchase 4 halla-bongs which should have cost me 10,000, and I ended up getting 6, just because the lady was nice.  Sometimes cabs won't charge you fullfare, and I've even gotten discounts at photoshops for printing a multitude of pictures. 

So, I hope I didn't turn too many people off of Korean culture, because the people here can be some of the nicest you'll ever meet, but typically you just need to get to know them.  I guess it's like anywhere else. 

Hopefully another new blog and pics within the week!

- 

So, there's been a lot of stuff going on recently, and I've been to some pretty interesting spots that I'll be blogging about soon enough.  As for now, I wanted to list some of the quirks I find interesting about Korean culture.   I know I can't really sum-up an entire culture by what I've seen on one island, but that's basically what I'm going to do because that's been my experience so far.
So, here we go:

- Korean women love high heels.  I'm not sure if I've ever seen a Korean woman out in public without heels on.  And stripper-heels are no exception.  1inch, 3inch, 4inch, teal, mustard yellow, black, pink, clear, you name it, they wear them here.  The women not only wear them on the streets, but while hiking, walking on the beach or going fishing.  Seriously.  The women also love black boots up to and past their knees, and skirts that come down about 2cm past their special places.

-Koreans are afraid of a lot of things.  There is a warning on the oscillating fan that I just purchased telling me to not use it indoors with the windows closed/when I'm sleeping because it can kill me.  This is no joke.   I told my coworker Sara that I'd be sleeping with my fan on that night (with the windows closed) and she asked if she'd see me tomorrow.  As in I might die. 
Koreans are also afraid of the water.  Every time I go surfing, there are people telling me how dangerous Jungmun beach is and how there are crazy currents.  And about how somebody has died there every year.  They can never tell me who, or even what nationality the person was, but they know it's happened.  This is even stranger because when Koreans go to the beach, they don't go out more than 20ft deep or so, (about 4 feet deep) and always have inflated tubes around them.  While often wearing business suits or dresses and heels.  Seriously.  Pretty tough to drown in 4 feet of calm water (due to currents) when you have a big raft keeping 3/4 of your body above water.   And I'd say only 5% of Koreans can swim.  And by swim, I mean swim better than a doggy-paddle with your head above water.

-Many Koreans have never had an original thought.  Every time I stop to look at a flower, tree, or to scratch my foot, a Korean has to peer over my shoulder to see what's going on.  If I cross a river to get a good picture of something, Koreans will blindly follow me, but they will never be the first to go. 

-If they aren't wearing dress clothes (suits, dresses, etc) they have to wear the most sport-specific clothing ever.  K-2 is a huge brand here and if you're going to hike anything from a staircase to a mountain, you have to wear it.  K-2 everything from hats, to jackets, visors, glasses, bandanas, moisture-wicking clothing, pants, socks, shoes and titanium hiking poles.  We'll be out climbing some stairs in a t-shirt and jeans while the couple next to us has matching K-2 track suits and what appear to be ski poles and are struggling. 

-Koreans have gross breath.   It smells like seaweed, rotten cabbage and old fish.  (At least the kids)  I'm sure we smell funny to them, but this is just my observation.   And it's really bad.

-It's not abnormal for some older Korean woman to ram into your shoulder as you walk by her.  Be it an accident or malicious, it happens a lot.  And they never apologize or give it a second thought.

-Koreans have a lot of phlegm.  They are always coughing it up and spitting it on the streets, sometimes near you.  It is typically just the men, but I've heard plenty of (older) women hawking up a nice jellyfish as well.  I'm convinced my old neighbor had TB.  And a lot of them don't cover their mouths when they sneeze or cough.

-If you are a couple in Korea, you probably own matching shirts.  Polo shirts, t-shirts, track suits, you name it.  They will be identical and both man and woman will wear them together, at the same time.  There are even matching underwear.

-Younger men here can be pretty flamboyant.  They love purple and pink, and carry around man bags.   And no, they're not European.   Men are often seen arm in arm and are very affectionate in school. 

-Koreans love English writing.  It doesn't matter what it says, as long as it's in English they'll wear it.  I've seen shirts describing the wearer as a stupid slut, or fu*king angry, and nobody notices.  Sometimes there are just English letters that don't even form words.  It's really weird to see.

To begin with, I feel like I should respond to the question I was asked most about my Donnaeko pictures; Yes, the water was cold.  But I'd say it was somewhere in the low 60's.  It wasn't enough to take your breath away, but it was not pleasant to be in for anymore than a minute or so. 

Since then, I have moved into my wonderful new apartment.  It's not the big one I was promised, but it's worlds better than my previous officetel.  I have a nice balcony looking out west over Seogwipo.  If I look left I see Halla-san and right, the harbor/ocean.  The whole place just feels so much brighter and open.  My stress levels have definitely gone down since moving here to Hyorim Sky.  I even got a bunch of pictures hung up on the walls, bought and orchid and built (well Paul did the work) a small cabinet for the corner of the room. 

Lauran is here visiting right now, so that's probably the biggest news.  We've been out trying to explore the island as much as possible, but it seems like she's getting a little bit of the Jeju cold.  Since I went to Donnaeko, I've been to Yeongmori Cliffs/Canyons which we pretty impressive.  It's basically this big rocky point that sticks out in front of Sanbang-san and has been erroded away over the years creating really intricate rock formations.  It was crowded when we went, and we dealt with (Lauran moreso than me) all the high school-aged Koreans saying hello, and asking to take pictures with us.  After Yeongmori, we headed over to Sonaksan which is the southern-most point on the island.  I went there a couple weeks ago with Bree and Rob, but this time, I brought my head lamp and got to look around inside one of the Japanese-built caves a little farther.  Lauran and I also hiked around the top of the entire crater, and enjoyed a pajang (pancake with green onions, octopus and some other things in it) with some beer while looking out over the ocean.  On the drive home, we stopped and checked out some of the old Japanese Hangars from their occupation of the island.  There was even a little memorial beside a massacre/mass-grave site that we would have never known about had we not taken some random turns. 

We've spent some time down at the little pool next to Oedolgae cliffs, and I did a little cliff jumping there.  It was even warm enough last weekend that Meaghan, Paul and Lauran and I went to the beach beside the Hyatt and swam a little bit.  Yesterday we went through the 'Longest Lava Tube in the World', where be basically got rained on the entire time.  It was cool to say we'd been in a lava tube, but it was pretty freaking cold and went in there. 

As for today, it's time to get the day started, but I hope this little blog and photo-dump was enough to keep my Mt. Airy AARP fan club content for a little while!  I promise to try and write a little more often.