Cheongnamdae

Election day was a holiday and in the morning we got a phone call asking us if we would like to visit a prison. The word "custody" was also mentioned! As the caller turned out to be the father of Colin's three private students who are really great we agreed with a great deal of curiousity to go. We were driven to a bus terminal, tickets were purchased and we climbed onto a bus. After a very pleasant drive around the shores of a lake we arrived at what turned out to be a "Presidential Retreat"!! We can understand how "presidential" becomes "prison" but what "custody" was meant to be we still don't know. The following Tuesday was also a holiday (Memorial Day) and our young friend Da-ae asked us if we wanted to go to a "Rest Home" and mentioned the word "present" so we were well armed and asked her if she meant "Cheongnamdae" to which she said she did.
Cool sculpture made out of bits and pieces.
Our hosts
Maybe Mark Inglis needs to visit here for new stumps!

This is the "Presidential Retreat" built on the shores of a hydro lake near Daejeon. It was built in the 1980s by the military dictator who was responsible for the Gwangju massacre of protesters. In order to create this retreat 30 or so villages were destroyed and 5800 people displaced. It covers a very large area and includes a golf course and fish farm. In 2003 it was given to the people of Corea and opened to the public. It's still used by the government as a retreat but in a more modest way. It's surrounded by huge fences, bunkers and has large barracks for soldiers, police and security forces.



Wisteria

Sculpture made with bike handles, spoons and forks
More made out of bits and pieces

Elections

On the 31st May there were local body elections.
As expected most candidates were middle aged men. Women however, made up most of the electioneering support. Their role seemed to consist of standing in lines along roads or one corners and bowing to the passerbys whether they be pedestrians or in cars. Occassionally a song would play and they would do syncronised movement to it - almost but not quite dancing - more like aerobics. All were dressed in different coloured tee-shirts with numbers on. The numbers related to the candidates but we have had not had much luck in finding out how it all works.


Daepyeong-ri main street with electioneering banners.

















Slightly blurred but the only other photo we took. 

Yuseong

Yuseong is a thermal spa and on the weekends it's very busy. This is just a nice view from a bridge. It's full of motels and hotels and at night they are very colourfully lit up by neon signs. We have yet to take a good photo and will "post" it when we do.



This is a common form of advertising along with banners . What get's us are the power cables draped everywhere and often very close to puddles and they're not taken in when it rains/pours.
A bank logo. Are we dreaming or is it exactly the same as the old Income Support one? Wonder which one pinched it?
The problem with American accents 

Our Apartment

Various views including our very small bedroom.
Koreans often (but definitely not always) sleep on the floor on very thin matresses, called "yo", so the wardrobe and drawers are in the lounge as it usually doubles as a bedroom. Some of the single EPIK teachers are in oneroom bedsits with a little en-suite and kitchenette. One we know has only two gas rings to cook on.
Pink is definitely "in" in Korea

Our Apartment cont.

The apartment is very small but big enough. The apartment complex is called either "Dujin" or "Rivervill" (yes that's how it's spelt) and seems to be identified as both. We have yet to work out if there are different times/circumstances when each is used.







Gardenia
The balcony and washing machine. The DP at Keumho gave us the three large orchards. He grows them at home. He's a nice man who often wears traditional clothing to school. He'll become the principal when the current one retires in August

To Shoe - or not to Shoe

As a sometime bus-driver, myself, I am interested in the differences I see in Korean bus-drivers. This was inspired by seeing one lose his toothbrush yesterday, as we were taking a corner.
I try, always, to avoid generalisations in the sense of assuming all Koreans, say, act in such and such a way - simply because I have seen one person do a particular thing. That said, in class, for instance, it is quite rare for one student to know something that everyone else doesn't know - if one student says he doesn't know where Antarctica is it's a fair bet that no-one else will know, either.
Back to bus-drivers: Often enough they wear slippers in the bus - on the basis, I imagine, that they are at work. Usually they wear white gloves, often they have a roll of toilet paper within handy reach (a bit of a worry, that, at first sight) , and now I've seen one have his toothbrush roll onto the floor.
The slipper-thing is a mystery for me. They are a type of scuff, perhaps, the sort of thing with no toes or back. Your toes hang out the front and your whole foot slips out the back because there's nothing there to keep it in. They're called slippers here, in English.
My problem is knowing when to wear the bloody things. In general, you could say they are worn inside (the house) because people sit and sleep on the floor (and the slippers aren't covered with the sort of thing you step in on the footpath). So far so good. Restaurants are sort of OK, as well, I guess, if they are ones where you have to sit on the floor. Where it gets harder is deciding (knowing) about other buildings. I notice that our spectacle-dispensers wear them at work - should I? Do they sleep/eat on the floor there? Do bus-drivers - should I? At school the students certainly sleep much of the day, but they are sitting in chairs, not on the floor and we all have to wear them. At a place I go to to do classes sometimes neither I nor the students have to wear slippers - but some of the people who work there full-time seem to. Ho hum.

Different art strokes for different folks

This is one of the murals on a Buddhist temple nearabouts and represents one of the episodes in Buddha's life, I gather. So far so good. What intrigues me is why the body's feet are poking out. I've seen it in other paintings and it couldn't be a mistake, anyway. I suppose I could find out, somehow, but the thing is that here - in the obvious place to ask - I can't imagine anyone who could or (more importantly) would tell me. As Westerners we are in the forced position of being regarded as demigods - with the emphasis on the 'demi-'. We, and our opinions, are regarded as both beneath consideration and almost directly coming from their masters, the Americans.













The brass pot/incense burner/container has the rat motif all over it and I think it's absolutely gorgeous, without knowing what it is, why it's got the rats on it or where it came from. It looks quite rough, in a way, and is certainly not that carefully crafted.

Misinterpretation, maybe?

There are 'comic'? cartoon characters of almost everything official around here. I imagine someone very high up in the scheme of things went on his pilgrimage to Disneyland and heard of the police being referred to as 'pigs.' He must have thought that this was a great idea, since pigs are universally regarded as lucky (as well as tasty) and must be a really non-threatening image for people. (I might have got this wrong, of course, but I simply can't think of another reason why the police should represent themselves like this otherwise.)

The problem with English teachers from different parts of England

Obviously the first signwriter - or poker-worker, perhaps - was taught by a northerner, the second by someone with a small speech impediment. The effects of this sort of thing can last for millenia. 

P.C. enough, do you think?

This is in one of the Grade 3 Middle School English textbooks, in a chapter about race relations.