This is a proverb from my proverb book.
신선 노리에 도끼 자루 썩는 줄 모른다.
sin·seon no·ri·e do·kki ja·ru sseok·neun jul mo·reun·da
faerie play-LOC ax handle rot-GER likely-fact not-know-PRES
[A man] at play with the faeries doesn’t realize [his] ax-handle is rotting.
The book explains that it is based on a fairy tale about a woodcutter who goes into the mountains and plays with wood nymphs or sprites and forgets the world, and only awakens from his reverie as a bent old man with a rotting ax-handle. It seems similar to the story of the lotus-eaters in Homer, but there are many stories of people losing track of their regular lives in lost reveries by falling under enchantment.
In looking up the proverb online, there seems to be a more common grammatical variation on this proverb that begins “신선 놀음에…” – this is just substituting 놀음 (a gerund of the verb “to play”) for the related noun meaning “play”.
I doubt this temple-panel picture has anything to do with the story, but it seemed to share something of the same atmospherics, at least to my mind.
Caveat: Driving Around Ganghwa Island
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.
Next, the fortress.
That's North Korea in the far background.
A picture of all of us, taken by a nice man who was looking at the North with some binoculars.
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: looking north
jacob and my mother with north korea across the river behind them.
caveat: a real korean restaurant
my coworkers helen and may have brought us to ganghwa island where ate meat with many side dishes.
Caveat: Like ant
Man Lives Until He Dies
How often do I ponder
Over what I live for?
Innocent of life as it were.
Though the stream
Empties into the ocean
I will not bend
Under the weight of
Workday cares.
Man lives and dies.
Yet I pause to think.
Like ant
Lost in building its shelter
In the warm spring sun,
I will live
Drunk with delight of living.
If man is born to live,
What should I worry?
Man lives till he dies.
– Kim Sowol [김소월] (1902-1934)
translated by Jaihiun Joyce Kim (from A Lamp Burns Low)
I rather liked this poem, that I ran across in translation here. I was very frustrated because I spent almost two hours trying to find the original Korean text for this poem through various strategies of googlings, so as to be able to include it and try to read it, but I utterly failed. If any of my Korean-speaking friends who sometimes look at my blog would happen to recognize this poem and point me to the original text, I'd be grateful and interested. I will update this blog post if I run across the Korean text later.
[Update: my friend Christine almost immediately recognized this poem and gave me a link to the original. She said they read it in middle school.
사노라면 사람은 죽는 것을
하루라도 몇 번(番)씩 내 생각은
내가 무엇하려고 살려는지?
모르고 살았노라, 그럴 말로
그러나 흐르는 저 냇물이
흘러가서 바다로 든댈진댄.
일로조차 그러면, 이 내 몸은
애쓴다고는 말부터 잊으리라.
사노라면 사람은 죽는 것을
그러나, 다시 내 몸,
봄빛의 불붙는 사태흙에
집 짓는 저 개아미
나도 살려 하노라, 그와 같이
사는 날 그날까지
살음에 즐거워서,
사는 것이 사람의 본뜻이면
오오 그러면 내 몸에는
다시는 애쓸 일도 더 없어라
사노라면 사람은 죽는 것을.
– 김소월
Caveat: work and then worked
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.
[daily log: walking, 5.5 km]
Caveat: “I sat in a corner and was alienated”
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: on the shore of the wide world
When I have fears that I may cease to be
Before my pen has glean’d my teeming brain,
Before high piled books, in charact’ry,
Hold like rich garners the full-ripen’d grain;
When I behold, upon the night’s starr’d face,
Huge cloudy symbols of a high romance,
And think that I may never live to trace
Their shadows, with the magic hand of chance;
And when I feel, fair creature of an hour!
That I shall never look upon thee more,
Never have relish in the faery power
Of unreflecting love!—then on the shore
Of the wide world I stand alone, and think
Till Love and Fame to nothingness do sink.
– John Keats
Caveat: Hiking some in Bukhansan
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.
Here are some pictures (unlabeled / roughly in order).
[daily log: walking, 4 km; steep hiking, 5 km]
caveat: 승가사
i am at a rock near 승가사 [seungga temple]. jacob took the picture inside bukhansan national park.
Caveat: Alternative Energy
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.
Caveat: Cough
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:
Actually, before that coughing thing, I had a pretty good day.
Good night.
[daily log: walking, 5 km]
Caveat: Puppets Dreamed
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: salad days in gangnam
jacob found happiness in gangnam with a giant salad. his own gangnam-stylin.
[daily log: walking, 6 km]
Caveat: Money No Object
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
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.
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.
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
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: 속초
walking across a bridge in sokcho. my phone battery is very low. . . more later.
[daily log: walking, approx 7 km]
caveat: 낙산사
my mother and i with the east sea behind us at 낙산사 [naksan temple] near sokcho.
caveat: jacob contemplates eating an octopus
he said he didnt like octopus. so i didnt make him eat it.
[daily log: walking, 6 km]
caveat: fingernails and food – discuss
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
I'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
OK, 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
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.
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: you’re in America now
This anecdote was circulating on teh interwebs. I doubt its actual veracity, but I nevertheless found it compellingly funny.
(I'm waiting in line behind a woman speaking on her cellphone in another language. Ahead of me is a white man. After the woman hangs up, he speaks up.)
Man: "I didn't want to say anything while you were on the phone, but you're in America now. You need to speak English."
Woman: "Excuse me?"
Man: *very slow* "If you want to speak Mexican, go back to Mexico. In America, we speak English."
Woman: "Sir, I was speaking Navajo. If you want to speak English, go back to England."
Caveat: More and more guests
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.
[daily log: walking, 9.5 km]
Caveat: Heaven having no part
Gold in the Mountain
Gold in the mountain,
And gold in the glen,
And greed in the heart,
Heaven having no part,
And unsatisfied men.
– Herman Melville (American writer, 1819-1891)
Caveat: Abandoned by Ambition
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: Caveat: 須藤元気 Redux
Genki Sudo, about whom I [broken link! FIXME] posted some years ago, has a new video. Nothing really new in it – it’s “more of the same” – but nevertheless it’s entertaining to watch.
World Order, “Welcome to Tokyo.”
Caveat: A cross between a leaf blower and robotic horse
Welcome to the future – almost.
[daily log: walking, 9 km]
caveat: wendy departs
i saw wendy to the emigration gate at the airport. it was a good visit. now i am going to the doctor for a check-up, and thence to work.
Caveat: Yay TSA
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
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.
Some little ceramic statues of peasant people.
Two Chinese tourist kids held rapt by a Korean potter demonstrating his art.
Some dancing / samulnori performers, marching out.
A giant pile o' people, spinning around impressively, to excellent rhythms – the medieval Korean breakdancing tradition.
Kelly with her son jumping rope.
A very pleasant looking reading room in a "mansion."
A kitchen with a lot of garlic.
We all ate lunch. Pictured are Kelly's son, Kelly, Helen and Wendy.
A really calm, beautiful courtyard in a structure.
Some ducks in the lake.
A run-down looking pavilion highlighted by the afternoon sun.
The lake, held back by a small damn across the stream along which the KFV is built.
A group portrait.
It was a good day.
[daily log: walking, 4 km]