Wasn't too thrilled when I saw this article about EXPAT teachers and crime. I've learned that reading the Korean Times can make you upset. I haven't met too many people here who's been in real trouble over here. Honestly sounds like a someone who's trying to find a cause to get behind for election purposes. I am sick of political scare tatics, that goes for here and back in the U.S.

Swine Flu: Picture of the Week

Korea tends to take sickness seriously. In fact, the whole Asian world seems to be a bit paranoid when it comes to sickness. Images of Asians walking around with masks is normal. Here in Korea, it's pretty much a way of life. My students my wear cute masks on their face when it get's cold and people get sick here.

Now with the Swine Flu scare, Korea has gone over the top. Everyday, students at school go thru this line up and have to be checked by teachers. They check the temperatures and eyes. This has gone on everyday for the last few months. Schools have closed down here over this. And last semester a wave of public school teachers here in Daegu were put on quarintine for a week due to a scare. I wanted to share some of the images I see.








Also, I should have some videos comming up. One of the main reasons I've been so late with posts is because I'm backed up with pictures. Now that I have a new computer (!) it's a lot easier to post vids and pictures.

Baseball In Korean!! (Samsung Lions vs. The KIA Tigers) Oh My!

When I think of pro baseball, I think of greedy, over-bloated steroid users. I also think of the sleepy Braves games at Turner field were there is more entertainment off the field than on it. Sure, the mega stadium experience that is MLB baseball has it’s drawing points, but the main factor, the game, has been lost to me. I haven't seriously followed baseball in years, which is a shame because baseball is the sport that I first paid attention to as a child. Where I was a big fan and followed my favorites, that was lost over the years as the sport seemed to lose it's way in my eyes.



So you can imagine how odd it was to see a Korean Pro baseball game for the first time. I had was not sure what to expect but I decided to keep an open mind. This isn't the U.S., it's another place and they hold baseball in a different reguard than Americans do. In fact, the Korean National Team was runner up in the World Baseball Classic last year. I was very curious about how Pro baseball here in Korea measured up.



I was invited by the P.E. teacher at my school (one on the right in the picture below) to watch the local team play. The Samsung Lions, from what I’ve read about, are a traditional powerhouse in the K-League (KBO). However, it seems as if things have shifted a bit and they are on a slight slump. Still competitive, but not as dominat as before. Still, I jumped at the chance to do something different. So after school one day, we headed to the stadium.




The very first thing I noticed was that we parked almost right next to the stadium. Back home you would be hard pressed to find a parking spot close to a High School football field let alone a Pro baseball stadium. We walked over and bought tickets (which were dirt cheap) and my friend went to buy food.

Now here’s the kicker. He went across the street to the convince store. He actually bought outside food to the game. This would be blasphemy at any professional sport. You could sneak a rocket launcher into a purse faster than you could sneak in a pack of M&M’s to a Braves game. Yet I noticed people bringing bags of food and even picnic baskets into the stadium. I also noticed a large cluster of ajumas (old women) selling fried chicken outside. They were yelling at anyone walking past and would go so far as to run up and try to pull a person over to their stand. It was hilarious seeing about 7 old ladies run up to random people yelling at one time trying to get them to buy something.

To make things more interesting; I noticed that the choices for food inside and outside the park are NOTHING LIKE THE STATES. Back home, it’s all about “Peanuts and cracker jacks”, Hot Dogs, cokes, chips and everything in between. Here in Korea - Not a hot dog in site. Most people were chowing down on fried chicken or woofing down cups of ramen. The P.E. teacher and I ended up eating dried squid. It's like a really chewy, rubbery dried chicken meat. Not a favorite, but not bad either. The one thing that doesn’t change is that people drink beer during the game. It seems that alcohol is the universal substance of consumption at sporting events.



When we went inside, my friend the P.E. teacher asked me where I wanted to sit. Yep, that’s right. You can pick your seats. We walked around and found a spot between the upper level and the lower one, just to the left of home plate and right on top of the dugout. As the stadium filled up, I noticed people would sit almost anywhere. The spots on behind the last row were wide concrete isles, so people got cardboard and sat on the grown behind the seats and formed another row.



I thought it was great. Very odd to me, but I liked the idea. You get to the park early, you get a good seat. I found this very strange considering that movie theatres here assign seats. I wonder if it’s just for Daegu or is that universal.



The stadium is noticeably smaller than a MLP park. From what I've read, it only seats about 12,000. It is also an older stadium. But it also means there really isn’t a bad seat in the house. You can clearly see the field and I was glad to be able to do that.



Now as the game started, I noticed one glaring thing. This guy in a uniform started stretching on top of the dugout and these girls dressed similar to the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders showed up. Confusing? Yep. It turns out that the guy in the uniform is a designated cheerleader in the most literal sense of the word. This guy actually leads the crowd in cheers. He’s got a microphone piped into the sound system and he gets the crowd to root on the players. And this goes on the entire game. Between at bats, there are special cheers and chants much like soccer chants that go on. The girls accompanying him even hold up place cards with the words to the chants. This made things really easy to get into.



As for the girls, well, they are actual cheerleaders. They do dances and cheers to music, they help get the crowd into the game. . . and they are there to look pretty. They remind me of the dancers at an NBA game who do routines during time outs. They even do costume changes.



Overall, I liked this idea. Because the crowd is literally chanting every players name at each at-bat, they are always into the game. The focus is on the players and the game. However, this was done without the belligerent drunkenness that one might see at a college football game back home or other sporting events. There’s no way I would want to take a kid to many pro sports games (especially football) but I would have no issues with one going to a Korean baseball game.



I also liked the feel of being into the game for once. I’m sure it helps the crowd feel like they are more apart of what is going on. I know I felt more into the game than I ever did at a sporting event back home (save for HBCU football games. . . . nothing beats a black college homecoming). I got into the chants and tried my hardest to sing along (they are all in Korean so I tried to read the cards as best I could). I was walking up and down the isle chanting and waving a team towel. I even wound up on the jumbo-tron a few times. (Note to self: Large black man chanting in Korean is easily as entertaining to Koreans as it sounds. )



The only thing I didn’t like about the chants was that they were more about Samsung than the city. Unlike in the states, the pro teams aren’t known by the cities they are based in. They are known by the sponsors. So you wouldn’t say the Daegu Lions. . . you would saythe Samsung Lions because Samsung owns them. It’s on the jerseys and it’s in the chants. I find it so odd considering that in America, the teams are usually big parts of the cities they are in. So much so that teams take on the personalities of their cities (The Pittsburgh Steelers are a great example. You have a blue collar town with a workmen, middle class, rough around the edges mentality identity that the team emulated in their style of play. The Steelers are a tough Defensive with a hard hat style offense.). It just felt odd to say that I was watching a game between the Samsung Lions and the KIA Tigers. Still, it wasn't like they cross-marketed things to death. The stadium isn't named Samsun Stadium and the company logo isn't quite plastered all over the place. Just the team name.



Sadly, the team lost the game. I found out that the KIA Tigers are the league leaders and it was obvious why. Their team must have hit four homeruns before the game was done. Also, the Lions loaded the bases three times and hardly capitalized on it. There were a lot of runners left on base during the game. Still, I had a great time. I even caught one of the little prize bags the cheerleaders shot into the crowd. I ended up with gift certificates to Lotteria (Aka Fake MacDonald’s). I could see myself going to a lot of games especially if I decide to do a third and final year here. It was a fun experience and it made me like baseball again.

One thing I have to say I'm a little on the fence about. . . .





No "Take Me Out To The Ball Game" or Seventh Inning Stretch. I was hoping to hear a Korean version of that song so I was a little dissapointed.

A Quick Update

I'm not gone from the world, I'm just back logged. I returned to the U.S. for a few weeks of R&R and only recently returned to Korea. More to come tommrow, the posts have been written already.

And it goes a little something like this:

Thre is no way to preface this. I'll let the story tell itself.:

So last week was a week long camp where I had to teach. I had taken the cab to the school for the first four days because it was pretty close to where I live. Well, on the fourth day, I decided to take the bus home. I had to walk down from one bus stop to another in order to transfer to the bus that took me home. This was purely guesswork on my part as that :

A) Never. EVER ride the bus here
B) All the bus routes on the signs at the bus stops are in Korean with no English. My Korean isn't good enough to read EVERY sign yet.

Can we see where this is going yet?

So the next day, I decide to use my newfound knowledge of the bus routes to take the bus to school the following morning. A rain-filled morning of evil. I hopped the bus going near my house thinking it would take me down the street and around the corner towards the school.

Oh how wrong I was!!!!

So where did I end up? Somewhere in another part of town with no clue as to where I was going!!! YAY!!!

At some point, I realized I’m was near a subway station. I hopped on the train and figured I could catch a bus near the station closest to the school.
I arrived at the station and walked towards the exit. As I walked around, an old man (let's call him Mr. Korean Old Man) stopped me and shook my hand. I've been here a year so I'm kind of used to it by now. I shake his hand, say hello and walk away.

But Mr. Korean old man didn't let go.

For some reason, Korean Old Man decided then and there that he must prove his manhood with a feat of strength. In order to impress hid old man buddies, he tried to pick me up.

Yes, you read that right. BENT DOWN AND TRIED TO PICK ME UP OVER HIS SHOULDER!!!!

I just pulled away from him and continued on my way. . . once again shocked at Sparkling Korea and it’s randomness.

Yep. This is my life.

Just so you know. I did get to school. . . . an hour later. Wet and sweaty from running in the monsoon rain. I missed a whole class period. However, no one cared as it was the last day of camp and the kids were just practicing for their shows. My co-teacher just told me to take a rest in the breakroom until it was for the closing show for all the students. I should have just went home and back to sleep.I'll post pictures from Camps later. . . .

The First Rule Of Fight Club Is. . .

The gym is small, cramped and wouldn't pass for much in some high schools in the U.S. Yet me and several friends gather there each week to get in a good work out, spar with each other, and share knowledge about different disciplines of martial arts.

It was started by my friend's Nick and Matt. Both are fitness freaks with interesting back stories. They share a love for martial arts, particularly Brazilian Jujitsu. Both are currently learning at least two forms of martial arts a week. As a means to share and gather with others, they worked out a deal with the owner of the BBJ gym the train out of. A year before I came to Korea, fight club was born. Together they run mini-classes mainly for foreigners on the weekends as a means to give people a taste of martial arts and a place to spar and trade ideas about fighting. Nick's girlfriend Susy is also there, usually working with the girls who come in each week (and does a good job of it).

This is how i spend my Saturdays. After meeting with Nick, he used his fanatical sales pitch (a jack-legged Baptist preacher would be proud) to get me to check out fight club. I was impressed and I started coming. At some point, it became a need for me each week. Sure, one of the best parts about Fight Club is that we all gather and get to meet up with people we consider friends, but the majority of us have a desire to learn more about the sport of Mixed Martial Arts and all the elements that can be added to me. I myself have only my wrestling background to fall back on. I turns out that it's really helpful when things go to the ground. I've also found that it helps with my standing game.

Each week I go home sore, bruised and/or tired from the beatings I've given or received from the rest of group. We have a lot of fun, but we also work hard. More than few of us at least want to be in fighting shape. Not so much that anyone wants to fight; we just want to be able to say we COULD train to fight if we wanted to. I have no illusions of becoming the next UFC star. I only want to drop weight. Some of the girls who come in only want to learn basic self defense, kick boxing or Taekwando. Sometimes the girls will even go off on their own and do Yoga. There are a few girls who don't mind mixing it up and learning how to fight, but no one is pushed. One of the rules is you put the work you want, no one is going to make you do something.

One of the fun things about this gym is that the Koreans who are members will come in and sometimes spar with us. There are a few who are training to become professional fighters and they are REALLY GOOD. I've seen guys smaller than my brother take down someone who's almost as big as me. I've learned a few little tricks from a few of the Koreans there. One of them I like to mess with because he's funny. He goes by John and he's a high school kid with a lot of talent. He gets a little cocky, but he's a nice kid. I sometimes treat him like a little brother because he gets a little high on himself. I think if he sticks with it he might be able to go pro one day.

The highlight of each Fight Club session is "The Brick". One man gets in the ring for five minutes and each minute the sparing partner changes. Basically it's 1 vs. 5 one at a time. It's tiring, but it's become a gold standard. Now because of Brendan, there is a new teir for the brick; the "Ten Stack." 1 vs. 10!

Recently, I've gotten very serious about Fight Club. I've seen that I've lost weight and the slow improvement in my technique. I also bought to pairs of gloves to spar in (I used to use the ones the gym provided - very stinky) and I've noticed an improvement in my stamina. I want to see more results and I want my skill set to improve faster. I can't do it just going one day a week, so I plan on joining the gym full time in August. I will be able to join in on any of the weekday sessions and I'll work with the hardcore teachers and students. I will more than likely have to rolled out of the gym the first 30 days because I will be tired. I've seen the workout these guys do and it's ROUGH. I know what must be done, but I really want to build myself up into a more healthy individual. Also, it would be nice to know I have the ablity to fight if needed.

Seonam Middle School: Year One Done

Korea Year One at Seonam Middle School is officially over. It is summer vacation and my contract obligations will be finished once my camp is finished next week. It’s been a crazy experience and I really don’t feel like it’s been as long as it has. I got here last August when it was hot hell and I had no clue what the hell people were staying around me. Korea was a strange new place and I didn’t have a clue how to take it. My school has had it’s ups and downs, but I’ve enjoyed my time and I admit I want to see how well I can handle Year Two.

Today was the last day of regular school, so I walked around and took pictures while the kids all cleaned their classrooms and said their goodbyes to each other. One particular touching moment was when a 1st year (7th grade) girl was saying goodbye to all her friends for the last time. She was transferring and one of her friends was taking it rather hard. I got a picture of them all together (despite them all hiding their faces) and I watched them as they all walked the halls together. The girl’s mother was there with her and she seemed to understand and let her have a little time with her friends.

When I left the school, some of the boys were standing outside the gate and I talked to them for a minute. They took a few pictures and I said my goodbyes. Before heading home, I stopped into the usual corner store. The owner stopped me and had his son translate something for me. He apparently wants to give me a gift for my family before I go home. I was very humbled by the act of kindness. The family that runs that store have been so nice to me I’ve always feel real welcome there.

Needless to say, I’m not the same person I was when I came here. I hope thing will only get better from here on out.

Now that the reflection is out the way. . . time to have some fun. IT’S SUMMER BABY!!

More last Day Pictures are HERE.