What Have I Done?

I thought it would be nice to organize a little speech contest for the students at my school. It takes nearly daily practice with the kids one on one to get them ready, but I have free time so I figured, "What the hell".   I announced it and thought I would end up with 10 or so...no big deal.

I had the meeting yesterday...40 kids, my why not, "What the hell" went to a this is crazy, "what the hell".  I have to start coming to school an hour and a half early for a month.  Strangely, I am still looking forward to it.  I am a complete idiot. 

The Smaller the Better

One of the first comments girls say to Sandy is, "You have such a small face!". Face size is really important in much of Asia. My wonderful small faced Korean sister-in-law explained it to me this way, "Who wants a big old Buddha face". I still smile when I recall that. Either way, beauty standards are different everywhere and there is no right or wrong.

A story in today's paper reports on a study where Koreans faces were measured and compared to Caucasian people's face size. The study reports that Koreans have smaller faces than Caucasians. What I find funny about this is:

• it actually merits a study
• they did not measure Caucasian face sizes, they relied on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency data. The EPA of all places!
• the EPA's data was just a guess. According to the last paragraph of the story, facial sizes in the U.S. data were determined by taking the entire area of a person's head and deeming the face to take up one-third
• The study was conducted by the Korean Food and Drug Administration

I am trying to decide if this is the silliest study I have ever read, or the shoddiest. It also makes me wonder about other studies done by the Korean Food and Drug Administration.

A funny sign I saw at  a dermatologist's office for a small face machine (I think),

A Great Start to The Day

Below is my nomination for the perfect thing to find on your desk first thing in the morning.  Of course, by the end of my second class (which went like crap) I had lost the cockiness that this note created...but I did enjoy the first part of my morning.

Bullfighting

The town I live in, Cheongdo, is famous for Korean bullfighting. This does not involve a bullfighter or any of the stabby staby thing.  It is simply two bulls ramming each other until one runs off. 


There is a beautiful newish 10,000 seat arena built exclusively for Bullfighting.  There are bullfighting logos everywhere and it is an event that garners a fair amount of national media.

The only problem with it is every person I asked here hates it and think it is cruel and should be banned.

We decided to go anyway and I found it, well, ok..not very exciting, not gruesome at all, just a couple of bulls banging heads for as little as twenty seconds and as long as 42 minutes.

There was a surprisingly cool little display of lit, inflated statues on a stream near our house leading up to the festival.

After You

The head of Seoul's Tourism Organization says that the country needs an "After You" campaign according to today's newspaper. He said that, "Please, Thank you, and Excuse me" are three phrases all Koreans should know.

I could not agree with him more. The pushing, particularly by the old women, is one of my two big gripes (don't get me started about the driving) about living in Korea. It seems that people are sometimes totally oblivious to others around them until it is too late...no problem give'em a little shove and you are on your way.  My Korean friends tell me it is a bit rude, but they ignore it. I wish I could say that I have gotten used to it, but I have not and  I generally give people a dirty look or, if it is a particularly hard push, I say something.

Koreans are some of the kindest, most welcoming people in the world, but the pushing gives the totally opposite impression and should not be tolerated in a modern culture.

No More Cambodian Brides

According to an article in today's Yonhap News,  it is now illegal for Koreans to marry Cambodians due to fears of human trafficking.  The Cambodians had made brokers illegal in 2008 which resulted in Korean-Cambodian marriages going from 551 to 1372...guess that did not work.

I find it interesting that they have only banned Koreans. The article says it is because 60% of foreign marriages are with Koreans.

I have no idea why this fascinates me, but it does.

Mail Order Couples Happier than Korean Couples

An interesting story from today's paper reporting on a huge survey (73,000 respondents) of inter-cultural couples.  The focus of the article is the foreign brides are much younger than their husbands. Not sure this comes as a surprise to anyone.  What does surprise me is:.

• They are happier with their marriages than Korean couples.  Over 50% of couples are happy with their  relationships which, according to the ministry that put the survey together, is higher than Korean couples.
•  64% have graduated from high school. I do not know the graduation rate from each country, but that seems higher than I would have expected.

This is encouraging to me overall, but I still think that this is not sustainable and the government needs to take more action to get the male/female ratio in line and make it easier for rural men to find wives.

Paranoia

Somebody shattered two of our car's windows, and our sense of tranquility, while Sandy was at school today. Was it kids at the school having fun with rocks and things got out of control? Do some of the kids really not like studying English? Is there some dude who is unrelated to the school up to no good?  Will things get worse?

Imagine..you can't understand the language, only understand the culture on the surface, do not understand  the customs? What do you do?  

The schools reaction was muted...seemed that they wanted to keep things very low key. Friends told me that you would not usually file a police report for something like this (this makes me wonder about the validity of crime statistics here).We have been treated so well by the people here and this shocked and shaken me.  

We decided to file a police report and the school will investigate I really hope it is kids being stupid, but I am finding it hard to accept this since it is two broken windows. 

Paranoia...hard to avoid when you do not understand anything.

UPDATE

A couple of kids admitted breaking one window, but they said they were not sure about the other.  The students gave some money to repair the windows and the teachers gave the rest.  We really did not want the teachers to do this, but they felt compelled out of a sense of obligation.

Health Care Updates

Since they are still debating the healthcare bill in the US, I thought I would give a couple of updates to our experience here.


My insurance rate has gone up $2 a month to $63 a month.


Two friends had to go in for serious medical tests.  One needed a cancer check.  She is from Canada and needs to reserve a slot 6 months in advance there (wow!).  She called for an appointment here and they said she could come in the next day.  It turns out she needs an operation and it will cost about $1400 with the insurance.


Another person went to the doctor and he thought she needed a series of tests that included all sorts of scans, x-rays, she was put under and got an endoscope check. The doctor made the call and the tests were done 12 hours later for about $100 including two prescriptions.


As I mentioned before, Korea spends 6% of GDP on Healthcare compared to 16% in the US and by many measures has a healthier population.  From my experience, access is excellent and afford ability is great.

1st Week Complete

I just finished one week of classes.  I am always a bit excited and nervous to teach the new students.  A couple highlights (lowlights?)

While walking around class I often put a hand on the should of students....amazing how many flinch as if I am going to hit them.

A student asked me what I was most proud of about America in class.  I went on about the freedom and opportunity for all people.  I always cite my grandfather and now Barak Obama since there are few countries, including Korea, where a man of his heritage and life experience could become the leader.  After I said this about Obama, one of the students yelled, "But he is a liar". I was shocked and thought, "How is she watching Fox News here?"

Se Teu

Saturday morning we met with Se Teu, the boy who needed throat surgery because he drank acid, and his parents.  He had the first of the last three surgeries he needs about 2 months ago.  His condition has improved a lot.  He can now eat some semi-solid foods.  His parents think that he is well enough to start going to school in April.  The parents were really thankful to my students for helping them.

The meeting happened in the last moments before we left Sangklaburi and I can not think of a better way to end our trip.

Great Billboard

There is a huge problem with human trafficking from Burma to Thailand.  20 yards from the border is this billboard telling girls to be careful of strangers, you could be trafficked and forced into prostitution.  

I really love this billboard because it has a great message, it is in the best place that the Thai government could put it, it has such a powerful image...scares me just looking at it.  A powerful picture is especially important since the ads will target uneducated people who may not be able to read anything.

Another thing I like is there is no English.  I have seen similar posters before, but they always had a fair amount of English on them.  Since the largely uneducated people will not be able read English, I think those posters/billboards are for show.

 

Old Project Update

I went to the project I worked on a couple of years ago and it was a bit discouraging at first.  The bathrooms had not been cleaned in a while and the monk decided to add a second floor onto the kitchen and dining room I built, so it was a mess too.  The clothes washing area and water tank were in surprisingly good shape.

At first I was a bit upset because things were not maintained.  Then, I looked at the kids and they looked great.  Their skin in the past was full of sores and they were filthy because they did not have a place to wash.  Their clothes were dirty to the point of being disgusting. Now there are no sores and the kids were in surprisingly clean clothes.

The reason I took on the project was to improving the health and living conditions of the kids.  They are markedly better than before I started the project, so on one level it is a success.  On the other hand, the place is really dirty and it was very discouraging to see it.

I talked to the monk about it, and he assured me he was fencing the area and then he would commence with a proper maintenance program. I will be shocked it that happens, but we will see.