BaboMongchongi

Jeombagee and his photo collection

5 02 2010

Jeombagee. You know Jeombagee right?

No? Thats terrible.

This is Jeombagee

He is our little Leopard / Cheetah that we travel with. Our students have got attached to him, so we travel with him, take photo’s and use them in class as part of activities.

He was so popular we ended up having to acquire extra backup Jeombagee’s.

What does the name Jeombagee mean? Its a Korean word, meaning “spot”, as in spots on an animal. He was thusly named by a group of elementary students at a camp we taught at, and has been famous in schools in Taebaek ever since.

I’ve got a few pics queued up for posting on flickr from all over the place. He’s visited Korea, China, Japan, Fiji, Hong Kong, Australia, India, Turkey, Taiwan and probably a few others I can’t think of right now.

Check my flickr page out for more pics. I’ll try to post a new one every day or so.

He is starting to show his age. Not bad for a BOGOF (Buy one get one free) special at our local Home Plus supermarket.

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Tags: Jeombagee, Photo, Travel
Categories : Jeombagee, Tourist, Travel

Taebaek Snow Festival. Been and Gone.

4 02 2010

Each and every year our sleepy little town of Taebaek explodes with visitors. Actually we have a few different festivals that draw the crowds, but the biggest of the lot is the annual snow festival.

This year is the 14th (or 14st if you believe the advertising) year they have run this and year year gets larger than the last.

From the 22nd until the 31st of January 2010, Taebaek strained under the thousands of tourists that were shipped in for the event. The whole town was a venue for festivities, but the major draw card was the snow sculptures and festivities in and around Taebaek-san, our famous mountain. The area is called Dangol Square after the famous guy who proclaimed the nationality of Korea from atop the mountain. There are snow carvings, food stalls, thousands of people, a stage with musicians and thousands of people just having a good time.

Various huge snow carvings are dotted around the area, some are interactive, some just for looks. All tell a story.

You must excuse Theresa Teacher in some of the pictures. She really gets into the occasion

Typically for Korea, the event was sponsored by Hyundai, with the sonata as their newest model.

Some of the sculptures were designed for people to fit themselves into, giving great photo-ops.

One of the most popular attractions is the ice cafe, a cafe contained within an igloo or ice cave. They serve hot drinks, while you sit as tables made of ice. Very cold but rather unique.

Downtown Taebaek isn’t spared the festivities either, with lights adorning the main streets and ice carvings around the Hwangji Pond area.

Unfortunately we seemed to have missed out on the snow festival parade this year. Not having a timetable of events hurt our chances at catching things. Oh well. We saw it a few years back. Not like we will be around next year.

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Tags: Festival, Korea, Snow, Taebaek
Categories : Festival, Gangwon-Do, Korea, Taebaek

End of an Era!

29 01 2010

Well, its done. No going back now, no matter what they say.

Contrary to popular belief that we would be here in Korea forever, all good things must come to an end. Yes, we have resigned. Not exactly an easy thing to do, but then again, when is resigning from a job you love ever easy?

When we arrived here in Korea, late August 2006, the intentions were to stay for 12 months then head back to Australia. 41 months later we are still here! Yeah, we like it here. We like the job, the people, the teachers we work with (both Korean and foreign) and especially the students. Other than the occasional meddling from the education office things have been great, especially once we got our apartment woes sorted (I should get around to posting those pics one day).

Of course, resigning is difficult if there is nobody to resign to. Unfortunately my superstar of a co-teacher was on vacation with her family, I hate interrupting that, especially for something like resigning. Still, emails are sent, letter printed and signed, phone calls made. Its official.

Exciting.

Whats next? Thats something we have to get organised and nailed down, pretty quick. Currently the plan is to travel for a while, starting in Istanbul and then heading West until we hit Ireland. How long depends on money and how long we can stretch it out for. Should be fun trying.

I think out of the whole Korean experience, its the kids I’m going to miss the most. They are the ones that put a smile on my face even if I’m feeling down, they always come up and do something crazy or stupid to make me laugh. Silly buggers that they are.

Sad. Sad and excited. But sad.

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Categories : Uncategorized

Yes, I’ve been lazy. Sorry.

28 01 2010

Wow, what a month. Its been busy, crazily busy actually.

And yes, I’ve been lax in writing. Sorry. My bad.

Why have I been busy? Simple. Vacation. Woot!!!

Lets do this chronologically.

December 24th. Teaching at school. Luckily they let us go an hour early so we could jump the bus from Taebaek to Incheon Airport. Of course, being the day before xmas the roads were crazy. What is usually a 4 and a half hour bus trip turned into 6 hours, but thats why we usually travel the day before flying. Our wonderful hotel managed to screw up our bookings so we ended up staying at a much more expensive (and nice) hotel next to the airport.

December 25th. Christmas. Didn’t feel like it. Checked in, had coffee, jumped our plane to Beijing. 6 hours layover in Beijing? Check. 6 hours of boredom in Beijing airport? Check. Beijing airport is huge, empty and extremely disappointing? Check. We actually wanted to have some decent food, being xmas and all, and were prepared with a large wad of Chinese cash. Could we spend it? Nope. Ended up eating in a crappy takeaway style restaurant that was reminiscent of bad australian food court chinese. Not Ideal. Still, onward onto the next leg of the trip, Beijing to Sydney. The flight was pretty uneventful, so not much to say.

December 26th – January 10th. Australia. Sure it was 2 weeks, but it didn’t feel like it. Lots of stuff to do, people to see, things to eat, places to visit.

We visited Susie’s Mum in Wodonga (6 hours from Sydney), Susie’s Sis in Ulladulla (3 hours from Sydney), people all over Sydney and around. We had birthday parties, christmas parties, New Years parties. You name it, we did it.

Still, 2 weeks was not long enough and far too long at the same time. Its difficult. Its not really a vacation as its kinda home, but its not home as we are visitors. Very awkward, but fun.

January 10th – January 16th. Beijing. The real vacation within the vacation. No commitments, no family or friends to visit, no guilt. What did we do? Well, 3 days was a “tour” with Fernando the guide, and Mr Grumpy the driver. 3 day tour is what we paid for, however the grumpy driver, in a fit of grumpiness decided that 2 days was all we would get. Something to do with us not spending money in the enforced shopping spots, meaning he didn’t get his kickbacks. Meh, we were up front about it from the beginning, no shopping. Still, Beijing is great. Big, big and enormous. I think we covered most of the usual sights.

The Forbidden City

Olympic Sights

Kool stuff in and around town and much much more.

Yes, even Jeombagee came along for a vacation.

Back in Korea, after the coldest bus ride ever (no heating on our bus) we managed to arrive back in Taebaek.

Susie’s Dad and Brother beat us to Korea by over a week and they met up with us a few days later.

Lots of doing the things of Taebaek and around. We had our snow festival (still ongoing) so there is plenty going on.

Mike and Ron left a few days ago, now back safe in Aus. Us? I’ve got over my cold, Susie’s come down with her own.

We drove down to Daegu (3 hours) just to go to the movies. Sherlock Holmes is brilliant.

Now? I’m drooling over the iPad,

and cleaning up in preparation of rebuilding my laptop (again).

Still, big things are afoot, plans are being made, Jeombagee is getting excited.

More to come soon. Really. I promise. For real this time. Truly. I mean it. I think. I hope. Fun fun fun.

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Tags: Australia, china, Korea, Vacation
Categories : Uncategorized

New Favourite, “I do all my own Porn Stunts”

20 12 2009

I’ve got a new favourite. We were working a camp for a few days at one of our local high schools. About 30 1st and 2nd grade kids, meaning they are probably around 17ish years old.

This girl stood up and both Theresa and I caught sight of her hoodie at the same time. It can’t be beat

It seems she bought it online with no clue what the english meant. Thats usually how it happens here. English is cool and fun, the meaning isn’t important. You do get some wonderful examples. We did try to explain just what it meant to her, she was obviously mortified.

Here’s another recent find, this time from Rachel Teacher.

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Tags: Engrish, Korea
Categories : Engrish, Gangwon-Do, Korea, School, Taebaek

Day of Dentists and Drivers Licences

16 12 2009

Not the best day of all time. Clearly not, however I can’t go into details.

For me, it was my third and (hopefully) final dentist visit within the last 10 days. Why did I go in the first place? A friend got her wisdom teeth out, and that kinda jolted me into going for a checkup.

Seems last year when I went in with a sore tooth, they addressed the sore tooth and only the sore tooth. Looks like he forgot to have a look around while given the chance. Oops. This time I made it clear I wanted a full checkup. Heading back to Australia in a few weeks for vacation and I don’t want to run the risk of needing a dentist in Australia ($$$$) or China (um, say what).

Different dentist this time round. This guy spoke perfect English. He gave me the full instant panoramic x-ray and found a few points of “interest”

$200 and 3 visits later I have a few fillings more and the least painful dentistry experience ever. Fingers crossed that what he did does the job. I don’t want to go back anytime soon.

Drivers licences. Australia vs Korea. Leaving the whole “Koreans can’t/won’t obey their own traffic laws” argument aside, it is interesting to contrast the 2 countries.

Australia. $151 for a 5 year full licence. Korea. $6 for a 10 year licence.

Australia. $45 for an international licence permit from NRMA. Korea. $7.

Australia. Thousands for insurance and registration. Korea. $70 per year tax and $340 for insurance.

Australia. $1.15ish per litre for petrol. Korea. $1.65ish per litre.

I’m going to have to unlearn my Korean driving when anywhere else on earth. Its just so, um, relaxed (and random) here.

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Tags: Korea, Taebaek
Categories : Uncategorized

Honoured Veterans? EPIK reunion says so.

14 12 2009

That was a nice weekend. 3 days in Seoul. Can’t complain about that at all.

Why did we get a bonus long weekend? Why did we spend it all in Seoul? What is this EPIK thing of which I speak? Lets go backwards.

EPIK is the name for the “English Program in Korea”, similar to Japan’s JET program. Basically they bring foreigners in to teach english to kids within the Korean school system. Here in Korea it gets a bit confusing. While it all sounds like we work for EPIK, we don’t. EPIK acts as a kind of umbrella, bringing us in, training us then passing us out to the provinces. Once out of their hands, we have very little to do with EPIK at a national level, its all provincial. Some provinces are good, some so-so and some pretty terrible. Gangwon-Do where I am? For the most part its good. Like most things it has issues, but what place doesn’t?

Back to the weekend. Having not heard a single thing out of the national EPIK crowd in a few years, it was a surprise to get invited to a reunion for honoured teachers. Seems we’ve been here quite a while and are now classified as veterans, and national EPIK wanted to do something nice. Even nicer was finding out that the reunion was a Friday/Saturday and in Seoul, meaning a bonus long weekend.

Honestly we didn’t expect much. Usually in Korea things get done with the best of intentions but the minimal of organisation. What a surprise we had. They put us up in a reasonable hotel (sure it was a bit 1980’s but it was ok), gave us steak and wine for dinner and then took us out to see a show. The show was a comic martial arts performance called Jump. Mostly non-verbal, it was great until I got dragged on stage to be part of the performance. I’m thinking I was picked because I was sitting on the aisle and had slightly “odd” hair. Oh well, nothing can prepare you for being on stage in front of a few hundred people better than a classroom of crazy students.

We had the obligatory presentation and handshake ceremony, but this time it wasn’t for certificates but for a plaque!

Very nice of them to do something like this. Shame its soooo heavy. Lugging 2 of them through Seoul was a bit of hard work

The Saturday was a small amount of formalities and then back into tourist mode. We had lunch at a fantastic traditional restaurant, then up to Seoul tower for some more touristing. Fun fun fun.

Leaving the EPIK crowd, we had Saturday afternoon and then Sunday morning shopping in Seoul, then back to Taebaek and some sleep.

Overall, really nice to see that the national EPIK people are serious. They tried really really hard to make a great weekend and succeeded. They also spent a huge amount of cash on us. Can’t complain there. Just a shame as it really contrasts the differences between our local education office who really don’t seem interested in us, and the national people who really have put in the effort.

Short version : Went to Seoul, got award, came home.

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Tags: EPIK, Korea, Seoul
Categories : EPIK, Gangwon-Do, Korea, School, Waygook

Winter is completely here, at last.

7 12 2009

Not much to write really, I’ll just let the photo’s do most of the talking.

Yup, its -5. And that was the warm day Winter is finally and completely here. In and around Hwangji Pond, the snow really makes it beautiful. Not quite spring but just as nice to look at.

An ex-student of mine.

The roads are all icy and snowy, creates all sorts of entertainment watching people try to drive around. Snow brings out the worst in drivers.

And finally, our local water monument. This was erected a few months back to commemorate the drought we had. 3 months or so of water rationing. Hope this year things are more sorted out, but I don’t want to hold my breath Its made up of a great number of plastic water bottles and is supposed to remind us to save water. Its not working very well.

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Tags: Korea, Taebaek, Winter
Categories : Gangwon-Do, Korea, Taebaek

North Korean Money

5 12 2009

Ah, North Korea. Land of crazy giant rabbit eaters, the worlds best golfer (sorry Tiger) and wonderfully peculiar communist art. Like many such things, their money is a great reflection of their culture. Shame most people anywhere never get to see too much North Korean cash.

I was lucky enough to get hold of some pristine condition banknotes, so thought I would share them here. The information all is thanks to Wikipedia’s article on the subject.

From what I can tell, it is illegal for foreigners to obtain or posses the currency of North Korea. If you are in North Korea you use hard foreign currencies, paying the highly inflated costs associated. Out of North Korea? Well the currency isn’t supposed to be exported. How did I get it? Simple. A year ago we went on a DMZ tour up to Panmunjon and in the military base gift shop, they sell a few North Korean products, including banknotes, soju and other alcohols.

These pics are all scans of my actual notes. Click on them to go to my flickr page and view the high res images. You can really appreciate them at a much larger size.

1 won note features a “Young Woman With Flowers” and “Mt Geumgang” on the reverse.

5 won note with “Students on a Globe” and the “Grand People’s Study House”.

10 won features “Factory Workers” while the reverse has some “FloodGates”.

50 won designs are some “Young Professionals” with the “Juche Tower” and a North Korean “Landscape” on the back.

100 won used to be the highest denomination, hence features “Kim Il Sung” and his birthplace, “Mangyongdaeguyok” on the reverse.

Introduced in 2005, the 200 won note is a departure from the usual. Much more boring and less artistic. It simply features some Flowers on the front and the value on the reverse.

The 500 won is one probably my favourite. The best images and artwork, the “Kumsusan Memorial Palace” and a large “Suspension Bridge” on the rear.

Both the 1000 and 5000 won notes, respectively the highest value note at the time of their issue feature the same imagery as the 100 won note, namely “Kim Il Sung” and his birthplace, “Mangyongdaeguyok”.

As of December 7th 2009, North Korea are reforming their currency. At its most basic the new won, the 4th such “new won” is a simple 100 to 1 trade. However the government is causing huge unrest by limiting the value that people can trade to W150,000 in notes and W300,000 in bank savings. It might sound a lot but on the black market, W100,000 is only about US$40. To compare, W100,000 of South Korean won is currently about US$87 but people regularly have millions or even billions of the stuff.

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Tags: NorthKorea North Korea Money Cash Banknotes
Categories : North Korea

Peculiar Places of Korea: Penis Park

4 12 2009

Thirty(ish) minutes South of the port town of Samcheok, you can discover one of the strangest places in Korea. Haesindang, or Penis Park. Why is it called “Penis Park” you might ask? Easy. Its full of statues of Penises.

We are not talking one or two of them, but hundreds, some highly elaborately carved out of huge tree’s.

Why does this place even exist? Being Korea, there’s a legend behind it. Instead of trying to paraphrase, I’ll just copy and paste from the Korean Tourism Page on the subject.

Legend of Aebawi and Haesindang – There once lived a young maid who was engaged. One day, the maid took her husband’s boat out to sea to harvest seaweed. Her husband dropped her off at a rock that was at a distance from the beach. After promising to pick her up later, he returned to the beach to do his work. Later, the weather changed, and brought with it strong winds and pummeling waves. The man couldn’t rescue his wife and she ultimately drowned. Since then, the village people caught no fish and some said that it was because of the dead maid. To soothe the spirit of the dead maid, the village people made several wooden carvings and held religious ceremonies on her behalf. After a while, the fish slowly returned and the villagers were able to live comfortably again. The place where the maid died was named Aebawi Rock and the building where the religious ceremony is held twice a year was named Haesindang. The ceremony is still honored today as a traditional folk event.

Since then, its turned into a kind of outdoor art sculpture garden dedicated to the, well, penis.

Thats not all. Everything is penis themed. We even have a water fountain style thing that moves up and down by the power of water.

Strange?

More odd are the museum style outdoor exhibits, showing how Koreans used to live and work. Similar to many folk village exhibits except for one small (large?) detail. Guess.

We also have the 12 signs of the zodiac done as penises. Each granite statue is carved with the relevant animal and exhibited in a circle looking out over the water. (This pic is actually a huge mega panorama. 15 shots stitched together, so click it and have a look. Beware if your computer is slow or your have a slow internet connection, it might take a while.)

If you come to Korea, I’d recommend this place. Its one of the nicest parks, in a stunning part of the country. Yes its a good long way from Seoul, but worth it.

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Tags: Haesindang, Korea, Park, Penis, Samcheok
Categories : Gangwon-Do, Temple, Tourist