Honeymoon=Over

So yesterday I got sick. Quite sick. Something started in my stomach and within a few hours I had a fever going. It was pretty miserable to sit through hours of training feeling like CRAP, and it was even worse riding the subway back to the hotel (a 45 minute door-to-door trip) feeling like crap. Yesterday I ate nothing all day and just the thought of Korean food was enough to make me feel even more sick to my stomach. I went to a Korean pharmacy with one of the recruiting officers as translator to try to find some Pepto-Bismol or something. This old man who was there rambled at me in Korean for a minute or two, even though it was clear I couldn't understand him. I'm guessing he was making jokes about how Westerners couldn't handle squid or kimchi or whatever, more for the entertainment of the other Koreans present then for my benefit. Finally, I got my hands on some Gaviscon (which I knew they had here because of these funny commercials involving firefighters in your belly spraying Gaviscon all over your insides to put out the "fires" of heartburn.)

(Here's another very entertaining example of Korean advertising culture: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C6eNqwaL1h8 )

The training is pretty rigorous--they expect us to internalize and memorize a lot of information, because at this point I'll be hitting the classroom in only five days.

I slept for about twelve hours after getting out of training yesterday (no easy feat, considering my roommate has had this terrible cough for the past three days). It's a good thing I'm feeling better today, because missing a day of training would probably be bad; it might mean I would have to go through the whole week of training again--so much is contained in a day.

By the way, the picture above depicts some traditional Korean folk music being played. I had the privilege to see a performance the other day at the palace--my favorite instrument was the "gayageum," which is the one you see in the foreground. That particular one is a "bass gayageum," which is played with the use of a popsicle-stick shaped plectrum, but I also saw some young ladies in traditional garb playing the regular kind, which one picks with the fingers of the right hands, while using the left hand to fret the strings. Some of the rhythms and hand motions reminded me of playing the banjo: before I leave, I definitely want to give the gayageum a try! One doesn't simply fret the strings with the left hand--since there's so much space between the frets and the board, you can create these interesting "shaky" sounds by pressing down with a vacillating amount of pressure.

Interestingly enough, most Koreans are totally uninterested in and disconnected from their folk history. This is a country that is drunk with the present technological boom... I tried asking some of my Korean native trainers at CDI about the gayageum and traditional Korean folk music and dance, and they really knew NOTHING about what I was interested in. Very strange, but I suppose it's consistent with what I've experienced as the "corporate culture" at CDI. Chungdahm Institute is definitely an education BUSINESS, and corporate ladder climbing is a part of the culture. My trainers keep telling us about all the opportunities for advancement if you're a successful teacher, which titillates many of my fellow trainees but leaves me a little cold. It's just very different from Canterbury, where the faculty is a tight-knit community of interlocked families, or the typical University, where the faculty is (ostensibly, at least) part of a community of knowledge. CDI is a community of business.

Seoul: Don't Squid Around

Today, I visited Changdeokgung Palace. You can read the nitty-gritty historical details here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Changdeokgung

But for your convenience, I will summarize the main things I took from this little expedition, historically speaking:

TIME is the third-largest threat to Korea's palaces. These things are over four hundred years old and that just plain takes a toll on the infrastructure, which is mostly wood and paint (not like those ugly stone constructions of the European Middle Ages). Luckily, there is extensive government funding that has restored, repainted, and revivified the palaces.

Fires are the second-largest threat to Korea's palaces. Fire destroyed parts of the palace many, many times, prompting the wise rulers of Korea to install huge pots of water at strategic locations. "Of course," you are no doubt thinking, "Keeping water around is a great way to put out fires!" INCORRECT. The wise rulers of Korea kept huge pots of water around as a PREVENTATIVE measure. Because everyone knows that fires are caused by fire demons. And when a fire demon sees his own reflection (say, in a huge pot of water), he will get scared and run away. And not burn the palace down.

And the first-largest threat to Korea's palaces is... (drum roll please) the Japanese! They've invaded Korea. More than once. And every time they do, they seem to cause NO SMALL MEASURE OF PAIN upon the Korean people. Colonialism... Imperialism, Racism... the Koreans have been hit by many spiky -isms. And at the other end of that -ism is an oppressive Japanese person.

Later, I will tell you about how NICE and CIVILIZED the Seoul subway system is compared to other cities. Like New York, for instance. And Boston (Ash knows what I mean).

Arrival

At 3:40am this morning Asiana Flight 221 landed in Incheon International airport outside of Seoul, bringing several hundred Asians. And me.

This is a strange country. I knew it as soon as the airline offered me the following breakfast foods: croissant, yogurt, melon, and lasagna. I knew it when I saw dried octopus sold in every convenience store in downtown Seoul (for a very reasonable price... only about 75 cents for dried octopus jerky! Only it's not cut up like beef jerky is... it's just an octopus. Dried and seasoned. All of the little tentacles, mutely arranged in vaccuum packaging, signaling some unknown portent... perhaps it's Korean sign language for World Cut Victory? Apparently Octopi have the powers of supernatural prescience: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/world/europe/10420131.stm )

After that long parenthetical remark on cephalopods, let me treat the World Cup. Seoul is World Cup Crazy. Infected with World Cup Fever. (Its cephalopods have World Cup encephalitis.) Tonight is the semi-final game, between S. Korea and Uruguay. If South Korea wins, I fully expect to be awake all night with drunken rioting in the streets. If South Korea loses.... well, I fully expect to be awake all night with drunken rioting in the streets. Or maybe the streets will be dead silent, as every good Korean searches for an Uruguayan to beat up? Either way, I have obtained a jersey for Korea, and will wear it tonight as a I try to participate in the revelry the only way a complete cultural outsider can... with cheers and boos at the appropriate moments (i.e. do what everyone else seems to be doing).

More to come! Much more! I'll be in Seoul for the next week for my training with the company, and then (provided everything goes well), I will be off to Busan!