Category: Banalities & Journaling

Caveat: Various Random Things That Happened Today

Banalities & Journaling

I guess this will be a less thematically-organized blog post than usual. Just call it a journal-like summary of the day.

For her last day here, my mother wanted to return to 영천사 [yeongcheon temple] which is the temple on the hill closest to my apartment. I had [broken link! FIXME] taken her and Jacob there not long after they arrived. This time, Jacob didn't come – he went to do his own thing. Ann and I took a taxi to the very top, this time, though it was more expensive and a bit complicated to explain to the taxi driver, since the temple isn't well known and isn't on the typical online Korean map (not sure why that is).

We sat and watched a funeral taking place at the temple, and talked quite a bit, and walked back down the mountain slowly and came back home.

I took her to work to meet the rest of my coworkers that she hadn't met yet – but they were all fairly unsocial (shy? too busy? uninterested?). Then I sent mom home and taught my three classes.

My first class was one of the so-called "CC" classes (the origin of this term remains mysterious to me), where we listen to pop songs in English and try to write down their lyrics and sing along. So I found myself singing. I guess the song is an old theme song from the Pokemon movie – but the kids didn't recognize it, as the movie is probably too old to be familiar to them.

My last class was my middle school TOEFL class, and we did a practice debate about nuclear power in Korea. Now I'm having technical problems getting the video file off my camera.

Tomorrow I go to the airport to drop off my mom and Jacob, and then I go to the hospital to get my follow-up, post-radiation CT scan.

What I'm listening to right now.

M2M, "Don't Say You Love Me."

The lyrics:

[Verse 1:]
Got introduced to you my friend
You were cute and all that, baby you set the trend
Yes you did oh
The next thing I know were down at the cinema
We're sitting there, you said you loved me
What's that about?

[Verse 2:]
You're moving too fast, I don't understand you
I'm not ready yet, baby I can't pretend
No I can't
The best I can do is tell you to talk to me
It's possible, eventual
Love will find a way
Love will find a way…

[Chorus:]
Don't say you love me
You don't even know me
If you really want me
Then give me some time
Don't go there baby
Not before I'm ready
Don't say your heart's in a hurry
It's not like we're gonna get married
Give me, give me some time

[Verse 3:]
Here's how I play, here's where you stand
Here's what to prove to get any further than where it's been
I'll make it clear, not gonna tell you twice
Take it slow, you keep pushing me
You're pushing me away
Pushing me away…

[Chorus]

[Bridge:]
oooo, na, na, na, na, na, na, na
na, na, na, na, na, na
oooo, na, na, na, na, na, na, na
na, na, na, na, na, na, na

Don't say you love me
You don't even know me baby…

Baby don't say love me, baby
Give me some time…

[Chorus (repeat until fade out)]

[daily log: walking, 3.5 km]

Caveat: Perhaps too soon for svekolny or borsht

Banalities & Journaling / Cancer / Food & Drink / My Photos

Before my mom leaves on Thursday, I really wanted to go to my favorite restaurant and eat real food, instead of just eating around the edges of real food at various places which is my current capacity. So we went to Seoul and did some souvenir and gift shopping and also visited my favorite restaurant, which is the Russian place that keeps changing its name near Dongdaemun.

We ordered lots of things. I was more-or-less able to eat some svekolny and borsht, but having some dumpling and kefir where perhaps pushing a step too far. The biggest obstacle: my mouth's sensitivity to acidity and spice in foods is less than it has been, but it's still a big problem.

Anyway, we had some Russian food which was very delicious, we bought some books and other things in and around Insa-dong, and we walked around some.

Tomorrow I work, so today was really my last chance to be "tour guide" for my mom and Jacob. They'll fly back to Queensland on Thursday.

Here's a picture at the Russian restaurant.

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[daily log: walking, 2.5 km]

Caveat: lenguas de légamo

Banalities & Journaling / Not My Poetry


Pm-23976-largeEl ángel de la ira

Sin dueño, entre las ortigas,
Piedra por pulir, brillabas.
Pie invisible.
Entre las ortigas, nada.
Pie invisible de la ira.
Lenguas de légamo, hundidas,
Sordas, recordaron algo.
Ya no estabas.
¿Qué recordaron?
Se movió mudo el silencio
Y dijo algo.
No dijo nada.
Sin saberlo,
Mudó de rumbo mi sangre,
Y en los fosos
Gritos largos se cayeron.
Para salvar mis ojos,
Para salvarte a ti, qué
Secreto.

– Rafael Alberti (poeta y pintor español, 1902-1999)


Por alguna razón salió de mi conciencia, al despertar, el nombre del poeta Alberti. Me hizo recordar el año 96, cuando en la universidad de Penn estudiaba con el profesor López, a quien si bien me recuerdo le gustaba citar a Alberti. Poeta difícil para mí, siempre lleno de aire y caballos y mar.

Alberti también hacía artes visuales, por ejemplo el dibujo arriba.

Caveat: Three to Five Years

Banalities & Journaling / Cancer

I asked the doctor during my check-up earlier today how long it would be before my mouth started to feel normal. He said, "oh, maybe three to five years." This was in specific reference to my messed up salivary system, and not in reference to my pain, which presumeably will improve sooner. Hopefully. I want to eat normal food.

Work went ok.

I came home.

[daily log: walking, 4.5 km]

Caveat: Driving Around Ganghwa Island

Banalities & Journaling / Hiking & Travel / My Photos

I drove around Ganghwa Island (강화도) today with my mom, Jacob, Helen and May. First we went to lunch and had traditional galbi-style cook-at-the-table fare. Then we went to 전등사 [jeondeung temple], which I'd visited with my friend Peter [broken link! FIXME] exactly one year ago. Finally, we drove up and saw a site called 연미정 [yeonmijeong], an old fortress location where Joseon Korea surrendered to China in a humiliting historical moment in the 17th century, but where now you can also look across the Han River estuary at North Korea.

Here are some pictures.

First, the temple.

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Next, the fortress.

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That's North Korea in the far background.

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A picture of all of us, taken by a nice man who was looking at the North with some binoculars.

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After all that driving around, we were tired, but then my boss Curt invited us to dinner with his family – his wife Migyeong and his daughter Nayun and son Baegang. So we ate 칼국수 [kalguksu = homemade noodle soup] made with lots of mussels (바지락) for dinner. Jacob ate a very large amount today but he wanted ice cream when we got home. I think he has recovered his appetite. Now we are home resting.

[daily log: walking, 2 km]

 

Caveat: work and then worked

Banalities & Journaling / Cancer / My Photos

I walked to work and then worked. I'm feeling pretty tired – burning out some from work and visitors and all that, and really, really annoyed and sick and tired of how long it's taking for my radiation-damage to heal. I still can only eat soft things and there are still constant migrating sores in my mouth, and it's been over three weeks since the radiation ended.

Here is a picture the fall-colored trees along the middle of the street in front of work – KarmaPlus Academy is the yellow sign with blue and red lettering on the building that is in the dead center of the photograph.

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[daily log: walking, 5.5 km]

Caveat: “I sat in a corner and was alienated”

Banalities & Journaling / Kids / Teaching & Methodology / The Wonders of Work

I took Jacob to hagwon with me this evening for a little over an hour. I had a full teaching load in the afternoon because I was doing some substitute classes, but then at 6:30 I brought Jacob into my TOEFL2 cohort, which is my most advanced class of kids who happen to be roughly Jacob's age.

I would say that over all, it was a bit awkward. It's hard to get teenagers to interact when they're not wanting to. Jacob wasn't unpleasant about it, however. Later, when we got home, he said, "I sat in a corner and was alienated." This made me laugh. He seems to have captured the tone of the Korean educational experience, then.

[daily log: walking, 6.5 km]

Caveat: Hiking some in Bukhansan

Banalities & Journaling / Hiking & Travel / My Photos

I will post some more pictures from Jacob's and my hike over the ridge at Bukhansan.

We entered the park with my mother at 진관사 [jingwan temple] on the western edge, near the Gupabal subway station. Ann accompanied us through the temple and a few hundred meters up the trail until it suddenly got very steep on a rock face, then she went back down and waited for us while we went all the way up to 비봉 [bibong = bi summit]. Jacob actually went up to the summit but I was feeling a bit acrophobic after the trail up, so I waited for him.

Then we proceeded down from the ridge to the other side, where 승가사 [seungga temple] was. That temple is much more inaccessible than most temples, since it requires a minimum of 2 km of hiking. It was quite beautiful. Then we walked down the long driveway (closed to traffic) and exited the park in a neighborhood called 구기동 [gugi neighborhood]. From there we took a 20 minute taxi ride back around to where we had started and re-met my mom.

Here is a map, where I tried very roughly to estimate our route by following contour lines.

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Here are some pictures (unlabeled / roughly in order).

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[daily log: walking, 4 km; steep hiking, 5 km]

 

Caveat: Alternative Energy

Banalities & Journaling / Politics, Economics & Current Affairs / Science & SciFi

Lately electricity prices have gone negative during peak hours in Germany, according to an aside in a recent article about Elon Musk's photovoltaic empire-building in California. The meaning of the idea of negative electricity prices is that because of everyone installing solar panels on their roofs and being on the grid, during sunny afternoons (which are peak electricity consumption hours) these buildings are pushing more power onto the grid than they're drawing off of it. Normally, afternoons are peak consumption times, and so coal-fired plants are also scheduled to peak production at these hours. The result is that suddenly the German electricity market is flooded with excess electricity, and prices go negative. Imagine all these coal-fired generating plants suddenly having to pay to put their electricity on the grid. In general, Germany is turning into a literal powerhouse of alternative energy – which is very interesting vis-a-vis other political and economic trends, both in Europe and world-wide.

I've been doing a unit with my recently re-started debate class about the viability of nuclear power in South Korea, and part of that unit means discussing alternative energy sources as well – so this is worth reading and thinking about for me. Korea had placed some major bets over the last two decades on nuclear power, raising domestic dependency on nuclear power to around 30%, but the Fukushima disaster, so close-by, has been prompting some re-thinking.

So far, I've been impressed with the Korean nuclear regulatory authorities' commitment to safety – rather than go on blithely after Fukushima, they have closely inspected all their plants both from a physical and procedural standpoint, in a clear effort to prevent a "next Fukushima." The consequence has been a huge electricity shortage in Korea, with more than half the nuclear production facilities shut down for inspections and repairs and upgrades. People find this alarming, but in fact, this is exactly how nuclear power safety should proceed, to be as safe as possible. So I take much solace in it.

Nevertheless, the South Korean government has been examining the possibility of putting some of their eggs in other baskets, too. One possibility that is very promising here, on a peninsula surrounded on three sides by seawater, is tidal generation. The Shilwa project is an example of this.

The picture, below (taken in June), shows an "electricity holiday" (정기휴일) banner on a closed store that was across the street from my old apartment near Juyeop. Most stores have these government-mandated "electricity holidays," and it was the reason the electronics mart was mostly closed the other day when I tried to take Jacob there. I'm quite sceptical about their ability to enforce power conservation in this way, but it is indicative of the scale of the problem, anyway.


Powerholiday 002

Caveat: Cough

Banalities & Journaling / Cancer / Found Online

Cough cough cough  cough cough cough cough cough cough cough cough cough cough cough.

Cough.

I guess something I ate (or rather, the manner in which I ate something), going down the wrong way. It's been several weeks or a month since I had that particular problem.

Cough.

And as commentary, I offer:

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Actually, before that coughing thing, I had a pretty good day.

Good night.

[daily log: walking, 5 km]

Caveat: Puppets Dreamed

Banalities & Journaling / Life is a Dream

Last night I dreamed I was wandering around the Seoul subway – which is maybe realistic given I've been taking the subway a lot more, recently, due to my many visitors, than in my usual lifestyle.

The subway was full of people from previous periods of my life – from my work in Burbank or Long Beach, from grad school at Penn in Philadelphia, from the US Army, from my undergraduate years at Macalaster and the University of Minnesota. I found a group of people that included some Burbank coworkers along with some acquaintances from my undergraduate years in a long pedestrian passage of the subway, where they were apparently staging a talent show.

I was invited to join in, but I said I had no talent. So I sat down on the floor to watch. There were several children performing a puppet show, but the stage-window apparatus fell down, so they were just sitting on the floor holding the puppets up. All through this, regular subway patrons kept walking past, oblivious.

Many of the people present were discussing the puppet show, saying how badly the children were doing. One girl had on a frilly dress and was weilding a dragon puppet and was having trouble disentangling the long tendrils attached to the dragon-puppet's head from the ruffles on her dress. You could see she was on the verge of tears with frustration. A boy had a puppet of a hunter or soldier, but he wasn't holding it up above his head, so he was blocking the view of it with his head and other arm. I felt compelled to defend the children's efforts against the criticisms of the audience, but I was being ignored. Finally, I gave up and wandered off through the subway again.

I awoke and it was 4 am. My apartment had become quite chilly – the weather station on my phone said it was 5 degrees (C) out.  I know my mother – staying with me currently – doesn't like cold, so I closed my window. I lay awake for a long time – for some reason the fragment of dream stayed vividly with me.

Caveat: Money No Object

Banalities & Journaling / Found Online

I don't have much to post this morning, after a gloomy evening last night. So here is something "inspirational" I saw circulating on the interwebs a while back and set aside for a moment such as this when I had nothing much to post. I want to show it to my students, maybe, if I can get subtitles or script for it.

Alan Watts, "What if money were no object?"

Caveat: Catching Up

Banalities & Journaling / My Photos

I said I'd post some more photos from the Sokcho trip. Here are few from my camera (i.e. phone) – somewhat out of order but from 낙산사 and 속초.

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Mostly, I wasn't taking pictures because my battery was running down too fast and I'd forgotten my charger. So I have "borrowed" some pictures from Jacob – who is the person who should be credited for the excellent photography, not me. Here are some of his from 낙산사 and 진전사.

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At work today things went OK, but the atmosphere was a bit tense and I ended up feeling pretty gloomy about it. I wish there was a way for me to help solve the problems of those around me, but basically I'm helpless. My efforts and work are not good for much, and furthermore I'm a bit handicapped at the moment, by my pain and the limitations of my own capacity for teaching and working. Helplessness is a hard feeling to struggle with.

[daily log: walking, 6 km]

caveat: monday morning return

Banalities & Journaling / Hiking & Travel

since the direct bus from sokcho to goyang is only three hours, and since i work afternoons, there is no problem coming back today, monday morning, instead of having to do it sunday night. i guess thats the compensation for working saturday mornings. so here i sit on the bus, a-bloggin.

yesterday, after naksan temple, we took a taxi to another temple that i had essentially identified at random on a map, named 진전사 [jinjeon temple]. the taxi ride through the rural gangwon countyside was quite beautiful and scenic, and the temple up in the mountain was much less crowded than down on the coast. in fact, the temple was utterly deserted, and appeared to be in the very early stages of a major restoration, such that most of the buildings on the site map didnt actually exist.

one other tourist showed up while we were there, and i chatted with him in my rudimentary way – he was a middle-aged korean guy who knew zero english.

later, when ann, jacob and i had made our way down the long steep driveway to the one-lane country road that led up the valley to the temple, i was contemplating calling a taxi for our return to sokcho (i had taken a business card from the taxista on the way up so i had a number). we stopped to examine another stele/pagoda at the roadside, and that same tourist guy from earlier was there. much to our gratitude, he said he lived in sokcho and was happy to drive us back into town.

he worked in a bank, but was currently out on leave for surgery. lo and behold, he had recently had back surgery but had in fact had cancer some years back. we sorted all this out entirely in korean, and i conveyed some part of my story too. he very kindly dropped us right at the bus terminal, near our hotel. anyway, i have his kakao (korean instant messaging app) so i will try to stay in touch.

later, jacob and i walked in a big circle around sokcho harbor and found a store selling a charging cord for my phone – i stupidly had left my charger at home. we also saw a very amateurish "multicultural" parade in downtown sokcho, as part of some fall festival. there was a troupe of amazingly convincing zombies, some ghanian drummers, and a stunningly large delegation of colombians for some unfathomable reason.

after jacob and i got back to the hotel, we went to dinner at what was possibly the most disorganized restaurant in south korea – the food they were willing to serve wasnt what was on the menu, and what we thought we ordered wasnt quite what we got, and it all took a very long time. despite that, i got some pasta in a cream-seafood sauce that ended up being really easy for me to eat given my current handicap. my mothers sandwich was "surprising" but she said it was ok.

that was our sunday. i got my phone charged overnight. i will post some pictures later.

caveat: fingernails and food – discuss

Banalities & Journaling / Hiking & Travel

we decided that after i got off work today, we would have a weekend adventure. my mom encouraged me: "lets go somewhere fun for you too," she said. i asked if she was ok with an overnight trip. she was. i knew jacob would be game for an immersive adventure of any kind.

so now, having packed and raced to the goyang bus terminal after i got home from work at three, we are on a bus to sokcho, on south koreas northeast coast. the three hour trip is almost over. ever since andrew and hollye had come over here while i was being radiationed, ive been jealous. its one corner of korea i havent yet visited.

my mother and jacob have been talking continuously for the last hour – which is good since after teaching and talking too much, my mouth is sore. the topic of the conversation is fingernails and food – not the two topics together, but rather alternating.

i wonder if some of the koreans around us on the mostly full bus understand. if so, what do they make of it? – i cant help but imagine playing a recording of such an extended yet largely unintellectual conversation to my students. what kinds of comprehension questions might i write?

Caveat: Not Going to Xinjiang Anytime Soon

Banalities & Journaling

Xinjiang_in_China_(de-facto).svgI'm actually really tired tonight. I took Ann and Jacob into Seoul earlier today, then came home and tried to eat lunch (which didn't go well) and then raced off to work. I got home around ten. I'll work in the morning tomorrow, and then I will take my guests on an adventure of some kind.

I spent about 30 minutes just now surfing google earth, looking at pictures of Western China (ie. Xinjiang). Why does that part of the world interest me? I have no intention of traveling there, unless I were to acquire a traveling companion who wanted to go there – I am utterly finished with the idea of traveling alone. But undeniably there is a kind of draw that the region exerts for me, along with central Siberia and Mongolia.

[daily log: walking, 5.5 km]

Caveat: Calhoun

Banalities & Journaling / Found Online / Politics, Economics & Current Affairs

CalhounOK, so sometimes I just read history, fairly randomly. Not only books, but online, too – reading wikipedia articles. The other day I was surfing around articles on 19th century US history.

I was reading an article about John C. Calhoun, the senator and slavery-defender. I observed that in the picture in the wikipedia article, he is a scary-looking dude. So I went to see if there were more flattering images of him, and instead I found this (at left) – which made me laugh.

Caveat: Dragging More People Up a Mountain to a Temple

Banalities & Journaling / Buddhism & Zen / Cancer / My Photos

I dragged Ann and Jacob up Gobong mountain to 영천사 [yeongcheon temple]. I felt guilty about it afterward because I always like tromping along the trails more than most people I know and care about, but my mother felt it was a positive experience and Jacob said it was interesting too. I was glad she could see the little temple there – I find it very peaceful there.

Ann and Jacob are watching a cute chipmunk that was leaping around the kimchi pots on the hillside.

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Later, I went to work but I didn't have to teach any classes. I had a few pleasant conversations with coworkers and talked for far too many hours with Ann this evening. I really enjoy the conversations I can have with my mother more than most any other conversations I have – she and I, for obvious reasons, have a lot of common interests talk about and similar ways of talking about things even if we don't always agree. But… well, the only but is that my mouth isn't in the right condition for so much talking. So the end result of so much talking was that I felt like I should have shut up hours ago – it aggravates the post-radiation sores in my mouth to flap my tongue so much.

Harrumph. And so I whine at the internet and call it a night.

[daily log: walking, 7 km]

Caveat: More and more guests

Banalities & Journaling / Hiking & Travel

I met my mom at the airport this morning. Per our previous discussion, she brought with her the son of a next-door neighbor who is named Jacob – a 15 year old Australian. She lives out in the middle of nowhere, so neighbors are close there – like family. So she interacts with him and his family a lot. It's kind of a chance repay some kindnesses from her neighbors, and also to allow him to "see the world" or at least one part of it – it's the first time he's been out of the country. This kind of generous gesture is hardly uncommon from my mom, so in fact when she suggested it earlier when we'd been planning her trip to visit I was in no way surprised, but I guess I wasn't sure it would really happen so I held off announcing it to blog-land.

So in fact I have two guests. Jacob is of course wide-eyed and interested in Korea, though a bit worn down currently from the long flight and I think a bit culture-shocked, as is to be expected. After taking my mom to the HomePlus store this morning, we had lunch at the Soupy restaurant that I discovered with Mary and Wendy a few weeks ago, and then when my mom lay down for a nap, I took Jacob on an extended walking tour of Ilsan – we saw Jeongbal Hill, my cancer hospital, the Madu neighborhood, the WesternDom mall, and part of Lake Park. We covered 8 km. Now he's exhausted. That's good. I didn't take any pictures, because it was all pretty familiar territory I guess. Today was a holiday – the newly minted "Hangeul Day" which was long ago a holiday but was out of fashion for several decades and only last year re-instated. So everywhere was crowded – especially the park. I like being a tour guide, but I ended up talking too much, which is an actual risk with my mouth in its current state – at least a risk for more discomfort.


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[daily log: walking, 9.5 km]

Caveat: Abandoned by Ambition

Banalities & Journaling

I had a sort of off day, today. I was feeling pretty good yesterday, after taking Wendy to the airport, then going to the doctor (which ended up taking several hours because I had to wait several times, first to see him then to get my prescription and get it paid for), then to work, where I had three classes. I felt like my health was finally improving.

But I was tired, and when I awoke this morning, my ambition had utterly abandoned me. My mouth felt really terrible when I ate (tried to eat) my breakfast. My mouth really isn't ready to be a conduit for solid food. I gave up on a plan to do some cleaning and shopping today. Whem my mom arrives tomorrow, she'll just have to deal with things as-is.

I actually had the day off today – because on my current part-time schedule I teach Monday-Wednesday-Friday-Saturday. So Tuesdays are off. Maybe I felt lousy because it was finally a time when I could slow down a little bit and allow myself to feel lousy – it's been a busy couple of days.

I kept getting spam phone calls today – sales people selling things on the phone. Normally when I don't recognize the phone number calling (or rather, when my phone doesn't recognize it), I simply don't answer. But with my mom traveling, I figured I should try to answer in case it was her routing some need-to-get-in-touch-with-me call from some airport. The salespeople were very persistent, even though they could tell my Korean was terrible and I had no idea what they were selling. Finally, I got pissed off and turned off the ringer on my phone. I have to go to bed early tonight, because I have to leave for the airport tomorrow at 5 am to pick up my mom.

More later, then.

Caveat: Yay TSA

Banalities & Journaling / Found Online / Politics, Economics & Current Affairs

I saw this article in the "Strib," and it helps one realize how pointless our "security theater" is with respect to airline travel: a 9-year-old boy snuck onto a flight from Minneapolis to Las Vegas. It's kind of funny that it wasn't even an accident – the boy did it entirely intentionally: he planned his actions and then did them, over at least two days. Having spent time in the supremely disorganized Minneapolis-St Paul airport, this hardly surprises me that he got away with it so easily.

Speaking of airports, I'm going to Incheon this morning to send Wendy back home to the US. See you later.

Caveat: KFV

Banalities & Journaling / Hiking & Travel / Life in Korea / My Photos

Today my friend Helen (a current coworker) invited Wendy and me to go to a "Korean Folk Village," located in Yongin, which is on the southeast perimeter of the megalopolis (whereas I live in the northwestern part). Another friend, Kelly (a former coworker) with her son who is 8, came along too. So the five of us drove down there and spent about 6 hours being tourists. It was fun.

Here is a whole bunch of pictures. I won't caption all of them, but provide comment on a few.

Wendy and I posing in front of some jangseung near the entrance.

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Some little ceramic statues of peasant people.

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Two Chinese tourist kids held rapt by a Korean potter demonstrating his art.

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Some dancing / samulnori performers, marching out.

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A giant pile o' people, spinning around impressively, to excellent rhythms – the medieval Korean breakdancing tradition.

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Kelly with her son jumping rope.

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A very pleasant looking reading room in a "mansion."

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A kitchen with a lot of garlic.

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We all ate lunch. Pictured are Kelly's son, Kelly, Helen and Wendy.

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A really calm, beautiful courtyard in a structure.

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Some ducks in the lake.

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A run-down looking pavilion highlighted by the afternoon sun.

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The lake, held back by a small damn across the stream along which the KFV is built.

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A group portrait.

Kfv_group

It was a good day.

[daily log: walking, 4 km]

Caveat: Three Months Cancer-Free

Background Noise / Banalities & Journaling / Cancer

Well… as far as we know, anyway, I'm cancer-free. How can we really know?

I think this a good thing – there are things in the world I still have left to do.

But… lately, as a part of the radiation therapy aftermath, I'm experiencing a discomfort level a bit worse than my last months before the surgery that removed my tumor, 3 months ago today. So from a quality-of-life standpoint, there's room for improvement. Sigh.

Work today went OK. I had two classes. It's so hard to talk, and I worry the kids are just being polite and can't understand a word I'm saying – though the possibility that a group of 2nd grade boys are being polite is actually pretty slim, on further reflection.

What I'm listening to right now.

PfmmPsychedelic Furs, "Alice's House."

[Update, 2013-10-05 8 am: My friend Jeannine had this comment on this blog entry on facebook, this morning, and I decided it must be included here, along with my answer:

Jeannine: Cancer-free…strange words. I'm sure you know much much more than I, but my rudimentary understanding of cancer is that cell replication goes haywire quite often – but usually our immune system gets rid of them before they proliferate into a tumor. So are any of us every cancer-free? All we can do, it seems, is nurture the ecosystem of our body and help it do its job for as long as we are given.

Jared: Jeannine is right – I know that very well. Though I doubt I know more than Jeannine (biologist!). All those cells are all just swimming around , and the immune system is swimming around playing "enforcer" and we hope everyone remains a team player. Point taken. The term "cancer-free" is essentially a misnomer based on a misunderstanding of the disease. That said, I'll play along with the misunderstanding because it's a manner of positive thinking: I'll believe I'm cancer-free, and hope the immune system is listening and stays with the program.]

[daily log: walking, 5 km]

Caveat: IIRTHW Intermission – A Change of Approach

Banalities & Journaling / Found Online / Life in Korea / Teaching & Methodology / The Wonders of Work

Back before I got my cancer diagnosis, I had been working – on alternate Fridays or something like that – on a little project I was calling IIRTHW (If I Ran the Hagwon). I published [broken link! FIXME] two [broken link! FIXME] parts, but my work on the promised third part was interrupted by the cancer.

In recent weeks, as I've been returning to making some effort at polishing up what was to be the third part of this essay series, I have also decided that I have another, very big problem with continuing the exploration of the chosen theme, in its current style: I keep changing my mind. This is a very grave problem, indeed, but a I suppose it is a common enough bugbear for writers who want to retain their integrity and convey their ideas with sincerity.

My third part was supposed to be either a complete or partial listing of those elements that, in my humble opinion, would constitute "My Ideal Hagwon." Yet each time I would stop working on the list of items and then return to that list later (after some break of a month, or two weeks, or whatever) I keep finding that I don't agree with one or more of the items in my list, or that I want to make some change to the details of one or more items.

This, therefore, calls for a change of strategy in terms of style of presentation. I will not post my Part III here as a blog post, but make it what my blog-host calls a "page." It's exactly like a blog post, except that it's undated – which means that I can unself-consciously return and update it and alter it to my heart's content.

There will therefore be a major caveat attached to the essay: it is and will remain, indefinitely, a "work-in-progress." One major advantage of a blog is that it allows for a sort of "snapshot-in-time" effect with respect to my state-of-mind at any given moment. But with respect to this "Ideal Hagwon" concept, I precisely don't want that effect: I want it to show my current thinking, even as that thinking is evolving (often quite radically) over time.

I'm going to post it this morning, in its current clearly rough-draft state, and then let it refine and evolve over time. Thus, without further fanfare, here is the link to that page-in-progress: [broken link! FIXME] IIRTH Part III.

In the process of returning to working on this above-mentioned project, I ran across a rather remarkable blog the other day.

It's called wangjangnim.com – essentially, it is a post-a-week about what it's like to run a hagwon, from the perspective of a foreigner (ie. non-Korean) who has a background in business (not education – and that's very noticeable and fascinating).

I'm sure there are, in fact, a large number of blogs and other online materials about what it's like to run an English hagwon, online, but, in my limited efforts to find them, they are 100% in Korean, which makes it pretty rough going for me and my limited Korean competency to wade through. What abound, instead, are blogs by foreigners and gyopos (foreign-educated Koreans) working at hagwon as NETs (native English-speaking teachers). Without exception, these blogs (no doubt including my own! – I'm not elevating myself above the pack, here) are not only rather myopic (not to say downright ignorant) about education theory and language-acquisition research, but also they are in utter denial about the business side realities of the capitalist-based free-for-all that is the Korean private education system, with all its successes and failures.

My IIRTHW posts, above, are an effort to address these shortcomings, at least with respect to my own blogular reality.

I have some minor complaints about wangjangnim.com, but the only one I will comment on at all, here, is the bizarre romanazation of the Korean Language that is implicit in the blog's title: in what phonological universe does 원장님 [wonjangnim = hagwon director] become wangjangnim? But really that's just the trained linguist in me, quibbling unnecessarily. I have a no-doubt annoying punctilliousness with respect to issues of Korean romanization which is probably incomprehensible to most people. [Update 2013-10-04 3:30 pm: the author of wangjangnim.com left a comment (below) letting me know why he chose the name wangjangnim. He said "Wangjangnim = Wongjangnim + Wangja (prince) FYI 🙂 It's a play on words." This makes perfect sense and I feel stupid for not having considered this possibility. So consider my quibble retracted!]

Setting such minor (not to say irrelevant) complaints aside, I will say that from my personal perspective, this is the best blog I have ever seen by a foreigner working in the EFL environment in Korea. It's realisitc, it has a certain subtle, self-deprecating humor, it's informed and careful, and the author clearly has a nuanced perspective both on Korean EFL and on Korean culture. I'm deeply impressed. It may be the first time I've read every single entry of a blog back to its beginning.

Even if I disagree with some of his ideas about what makes a great hagwon, I cannot recommend that blog highly enough. It's deeply thought provoking and has induced a great deal of thought on my part vis-a-vis my own IIRTHW project.

Caveat: A Day in the Park

Background Noise / Banalities & Journaling / Cancer / 한국말을 배움 (Failing to Learn Korean)

Today was a holiday – October 3rd is called "Foundation Day" in English, properly 개천절 [gaecheonjeol] in Korean. So since my friend Mary was visiting we went to Ilsan's Lake Park, a few blocks away from my apartment, despite my not feeling so well.

The park was pretty busy. The sky was cloudless and azure. I tried to take a few pictures.

Found 016

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Found 013

Found 001

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Later I was thinking of trying to eat a meal of actual solid food and thought to try some more jeon (Korean onion pancake, sorta), which I'd eaten successfully last week one time. But the jeon joint that I frequent that is nearest to my house wasn't open at lunch time.

Stumped, we wandered around and then I decided to try a "soup" restaurant (European/Western style food, not Korean) that I walk by frequently since moving to this new apartment. That place was pretty good. I had potato soup, and ate a lot of salmon from Mary's salmon salad (which she wasn't eating), by slicing it up into tiny pieces and swallowing them like pills. Not much flavor, but it gets me some protein.

After lunch, we walked back over to the Jeongbalsan plaza and there were zillions of families – they were having a children's day type thing with booths and a sort of kids' flea market. I saw a bunch of jangseung lined up. I like these things.

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Later, I took a nap after my friend Mary had departed to return to Seoul, and then this evening Wendy and I walked over to try the jeon joint again. This time it was open, and I accomplished a new Korean language milestone. The menu at the jeon joint only had jeon where things were added that would have made it too difficult for me to eat: they had jeon with kimchi or peppers (too spicy), with seafood (too hard to chew), etc. Nothing that was relatively plain. So I did a new thing. Bravely, I made a special order, in Korean – I went "off menu." And lo and behold, it worked – I got a jeon with only green onions. It was OK. It's hard to eat, but if I chop it up tiny pieces and "steer to the left" in my mouth (the numb side, with the chopped nerves), I can manage it.

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What I'm listening to right now.

Talking Heads, "Heaven."

Lyrics:

Everyone is trying to get to the bar
The name of the bar, the bar is called Heaven
The band in Heaven that plays my favorite song
Play it one more time, play it all night long

Heaven, Heaven is a place, place where
nothing, nothing ever happens
Heaven, Heaven is a place, place where
nothing, nothing ever happens

There is a party, everyone is there
Everyone will leave at exactly the same time
When this party's over, it will start again
But not be any different, it'll be exactly the same

Heaven, Heaven is a place, place where
nothing, nothing ever happens
Heaven, Heaven is a place, a place where
nothing, nothing ever happens

When this kiss is over, it will start again
It will not be any different, it'll be exactly the same
It's hard to imagine that nothing at all
Could be so exciting, could be this much fun

Heaven, Heaven is a place, a place where
nothing, nothing ever happens
Heaven, Heaven is a place, a place where
nothing, nothing ever happens

[daily log: walking, 4 km]

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