Episode 40: In Which DFM Climbs With A Korean Pro, And Tries Not To Fall On His Face

Today (Saturday) was the date of the final Ace Climbing Competition for 2009 (and my final Ace Climbing Competition before I head back to Canada).

This month's competition was held on a Saturday afternoon, as opposed to the typical Thursday evening, because we needed the extra time. I get the sense that year-end competitions are usually a big deal at Ace, and if so this year was certainly no different.

Ji-hyeun had sent me an sms earlier in the week telling me not to forget about the competition because I could win many prizes. Prizes are definitely a new aspect of Ace competitions for me, but Ji-hyeun still hasn't learned that my life essentially evolves around the next competition of any kind, and so there was no chance I would have forgotten either way.

This time I finally got a chance to climb in the same team as the incredible Yun Gi-yeun. Gi-yeun, so I've been told, is a professional Korean sports climber (climbing outside with ropes, etc.) and today he took no more than two tries to finish any of the routes in the competition. If you remember, this is the same climber I wrote about a while ago who completed 8 laps of a 100 move route, for a warm up.

After the climbing competition, the real fun began. Ji-hyeun and Choi had planned three fun games for even more chances to win prizes and have more fun.

The first game was a team speed relay event. Each of the five teams selected three members to take part in the relay. The first leg of the relay involved a beginner member following a short course and then tagging any body part of a waiting intermediate level climber. The intermediate level climber then set off on another short course to tag the leg of an advanced level climber, who in turn set off to the finish as fast as he/she could. Of course Gi-yeun was my team's final competitor, and even though he climbed his route without using his feet, we still won by a full second.

Next came the slacklining event. Choi strung up a low slackline between two walls, and numbered off sections of the line for the competition. The confused expressions of the climbers in the picture below gives you a clue as to just how little Korean climbers practice their slacklining compared to climbers from The West.

(Yun Gi-yeun, in the orange and white shirt, and some of the other advanced climbers contemplate this strange new contraption in the climbing gym.)

This part of the competition also had a bonus section, in which everyone, even those climbers not competing, could win a prize by correctly guessing the winner of the competition (the climber who makes it to the furthest zone, marked by the white tape).

(Han-song, in the black tank-top, and the other climbers look on with interest during the Ace slacklining competition.)

I was too busy taking pictures of everyone to actually practice the event myself, but I noticed that none of the climbers could make it more than two steps without wobbling wildly, and tumbling off the line soon afterwards.

I had learned to slackline by practising on a suspended cable I found in a playground near my University a few years ago. While I am by no means an expert, I was pretty certain I had a good chance of making it a few metres down the line without falling. This knowledge, combined with the fact that I didn't really know the full names of any of the athletes competing compelled me to vote for myself as the winner.

I ended up getting second place, and narrowly missed first place by one step. One of my friends expressed mock anger at my not having practised, because if the other climbers had seen my relative poise on the webbing they all would have voted for me. It mattered not though, because the winning technique seemed to be stumbling forward awkwardly, as fast as you could, and hoping that you lucked out and hit the rope at a far number before taking a wild fall (see below).

(Another one bites the dust during the Ace slackline event. Check out Gi-yeun's expression on the left.)

Next came the one-footed paper pick up. That may not seem difficult, from the title, but there's a catch - you have to pick the paper up with your mouth, and the one foot is used for standing.

(Here Choi explains the rules. Stand on one foot on the wood. Crouch down and pick the paper up with your mouth, and then stand back up again without touching any other body part to the ground.)

Below, my friend, the "Man In Black" (yes, I'm referencing a movie, but no it did not feature Will Smith) shows you how it's done.

(Step 1: Marvel at how inflexible you are/how far away the paper seems.)

(Step 2: Hurt yourself getting down even further, only to become flummoxed by how the paper has not gotten any closer to your mouth.)

(Step 3: Dislocate your hip and knee to get your mouth within three inches of the ground by quickly jerking your head down as quickly as possible.)

I also voted for myself in this competition, and I almost won again, but I fell over on my way back up, with the paper in my mouth. I'm going to practice this at home and fly back over to Korea next Christmas, just to win this event.

(Of course, what would an Ace Climbing Competition be without a big group feast at the end?)

The end of an "era" of Ace Climbing Competitions. Time to say good-bye. One last picture though...

(Na-ra, "fighting!")

Episode 36: In Which DFM Goes Bouldering In Bukhansan

During this visit and my last visit I only managed to make it out to the mountains to climb twice (once each trip). I was hoping that I would be able to make it out at least two times this visit, but all of the Ace trips since my leg burning fall seemed to be multiple day camping trips, and I have been too busy lately to be able to afford to lose a weekend climbing. Fortunately, Ji-hyeun brought to my attention a half-day bouldering trip to Bukhansan (the large Park just North of Seoul that I used to hike frequently my last visit, and where I ran the half-marathon) that Ace was planning to take, and I jumped at the chance to not only get a second climbing trip in, but also my first serious outdoor bouldering experience.

Apparently the Ace climbers had just recently heard about the bouldering at Bukhansan a few weeks ago from a foreigner. I was rather surprised since I had known about the bouldering there for some time.

Speaking of KOTR, back in May I went to the outdoor climbing wall at Boramae Park with Perry. Just before I was about to leave, an American from Idaho came to the wall. His name was Tyler (I think), and he told me he was on KOTR as well. Just this week Tyler decided to start climbing at Ace, so it was quite a surprise to see him again on Monday. But I digress...

Obviously I had a good time bouldering, but my words could not do justice to the wonderful afternoon, so instead I'll show some pictures.

(Choi setting up the crash pads, while the other climbers have a "safety meeting." This reminds me of unionized road crews back in Alberta.)

(I know some crazies tried to climb up that mammoth boulder on the left, because I could see the chalk marks on all the "hand holds," or at least where someone thought there should have been a hand hold. Thankfully decided to stick to the baby boulder on the right.)

(Some of Ace's veteran climbers on a V2/V3.)

(A break for lunch. What would a Korean climbing trip be without a feast?)

(I hate when the hardest move is the first move.)

(Choi and Rina sending a V3.)

(A fun, overhanging V3.)

(Not even Choi could figure out the finish of this route.)

(Here, Perry's friend who climbed with me and Perry in the Boramae Park post, and whose name I still haven't learned, shows classic bouldering form on yet another V3.)

(Of course we all went out for a big meal afterwards. This is the same restaurant I've been going to with Ace for some time, but I finally figured out the name of this meal: Dalkhanmari.)

And thus ends another great day in Korea.

Episode 35: In Which DFM Helps The Government Of Seoul, And Becomes An Alien

Last Thursday Elise had to meet a friend, so we couldn't meet after work like we usually do. This week she tried to make up for it by taking us to the Ddeok Cafe to celebrate my birthday. The Ddeok Cafe is, like the name would suggest, a restaurant that only sells ddeok.

As long time readers will undoubtedly know, ddeok is essentially rice that has been compressed into sticky, chewy "cakes," which are surprisingly delicious and come in a variety of shapes and sizes. When you think that rice is eaten so often in Korea the name for "meal" is the same for rice, it seems counter- intuitive to then have rice for desert let alone make a restaurant to sell it. Then again, Canada has an obesity rate four times higher than that of Korea, and the restaurant was packed.

After the one week remembrance celebration of my last birthday I went to Ace to take part in the November climbing competition. Unfortunately I forgot that I had taken my shoes home last Wednesday to climb at Summit and that they were under my bed when I left in the morning. Ji-hyeun was kind enough to let me borrow a pair of rental shoes from the gym, but I think they were about a decade old, and the soles had started to petrify. Needless to say, it wasn't the best competition I've ever had, but it was fun nonetheless.

* * * * *

On Friday I finally got around to picking up my Alien Registration Card (ARC), which was supposed to have finished processing on Monday, but I was too busy all week to pick it up. Actually, I was not too busy, I just didn't want to go.

After picking up my registration card I was asked by a woman to fill out a survey about the experience of foreigners in Korea. I had read the results of this same survey given in spring, and I wasn't sure how six months could make a big difference.

While taking the survey I did notice some flaws though. It took me about half an hour to complete because I actually thought carefully about each question, but after I finished I was left wanting to answer more questions. For instance, how can I accurately give my opinion on the quality of "living in Korea" when the category involves water quality, neighbourhood cleanliness, house quality, etc.? I love the neighbourhoods, and while the houses are small, Americans and Canadians are spoiled with the mini-mansions they call bungalows anyway. However, the tap water literally disintegrates my gums and I've had to be extra careful about not using the tap water to brush my teeth. If I want to give high marks for the cleanliness of the streets and low marks for water quality, how can I do that without averaging the two scores out and making it look like nothing was overly good or overly bad?

And then there was the section for "comments," which didn't exist. I'm not sure how the government is going to know how foreigners think the problems can be solved if they don't let us tell them. After all, surveys don't fix problems by themselves.

My night wasn't done there though. You may remember the MEC Chuseok party back in October when we went to Paju. At the end of that night, Vanilla's swing dancing instructor friend gave us all an introductory lesson to swing dancing. Well, today he was throwing a party at his house, and so Hyenii and I decided to accept his invitation (I'm always up for Korean food).

Hyenii had followed me to the Immigration Office so that she could come with me to the party. I asked her if she could find any signs for the Immigration Office leading up to it from the subway. She could only find one tiny sign in Korean, on the large sign out front, with fifteen other small signs for other companies in the building surrounding it, but nothing leading up to the building that would give us directions as I expected, and yes I'm still bitter about it.

Speaking of bitter, the trip to the party would have taken less than half an hour on the subway, but Vanilla insisted on driving in her car because she didn't like the smell of the people on the subway. I'm not trying to single out Vanilla here, or even Koreans. This is a world-wide problem that I absolutely hate. It seems that as soon as someone makes a little money, he/she all of a sudden thinks that he/she is too good for public transportation. Well, listen people, you're not too good, in fact driving your car in a city with what I consider the World's best public transportation system makes you nothing but a douche bag. That half-hour trip in her car car wound up taking over an hour and a half, because about a million other douche bags decided that they absolutely needed to drive their cars too.

As for the party, it was of course great, once we finally got there. Delicious Korean food + Korean friends has been a recipe for success that has never failed my since I first got lost and taken out for dinner way back in March, and it didn't start now.

Episode 32: In Which DFM Goes "Camping" With His Students, And Learns His Lesson (Or Does He?) About Trying To Impress Girls

On Monday, Hyenii (the English teacher at one of my schools) told me that I wouldn't have class on Wednesday because the school was taking the children on a field trip. My boss however later told the school he wanted me to come along (I suppose he was worried about all the work I had been missing because of the school closures). While I would have liked to have had another day off, and having to wake up an hour earlier than usual to catch the bus from the school was not fun, at least I did not have to teach anything.

When I showed up at school I was told all sorts of different stories about where we were going. Some children said we were going to have a picnic, while others said we were going "camping." However, where we actually went was a smaller version of Edmonton, Alberta's Telus World Of Science (The Space and Science Centre, for all of you readers who don't have enough fingers or free brain cells to keep up with all the name changes the Centre has gone through).

Playing around with a bunch of fun science experiments all morning was quite fun. However, it would be a waste of everyone's time to read about it since you really had to experience them to be interested by them, so I won't write about them here. After the trip was over I was told to go home on my own by the subway. However, I decided to go climbing again for the third day in a row. This was a mistake.

I don't think climbing three days in a row was necessarily the mistake, but after an exceptionally hard day of climbing on Monday, and an ego-driven day of hard climbing on Tuesday (I tried to impress two of Korea's best young female climbers who were visiting the gym), I had absolutely no strength left in my muscles (힘없어). In the end it (trying to show off) was pointless, because both of the women were better climbers than me on my best days, and I was already weakened from the day before. Long story short, no one was impressed (at least one of them complemented me on my Korean).

There is a certain route in the gym that consists of 100 moves. Perry told me that the Korean name of the route translates to "Once Around The Village," which is perhaps the best name for a route I've ever heard. I've completed this route on three different occasions before this, but on this day I failed to complete even the first 20 moves (힘없어.)

Despite not actually climbing anything of significance, and probably doing more harm than good, I still managed to waste about three hours at the climbing gym this night. I was, however, able to worry that I may have negatively impacted my ability to compete to my full potential at next week's (this week since I'm posting this late) Ace Climbing Competition. I'll have to wait and see what happens after a good rest.

Episode 27: The Rest Of The Week

This week has been one of the busiest yet for me. I'm so tired I couldn't even come up with a clever title for this week. (I invite readers to suggest clever titles in the comments section.) That said, since I'm almost a week behind on my blogs I've decided to include the remaining three days of the week in this one post.

* * * * *

Wednesday:

Typically the Ace Climbing Competitions are held on the third Thursday of every month. However, for some reason this month's climbing competition was moved to this Wednesday.

When I used to attend Ace climbing competitions back in March and April, there were a significantly larger number of people there. Both last month and this month though I've noticed that the number of people attending the competitions seems to be getting less and less. Perhaps this is the "climbing season" and everyone is off in the mountains, and in winter the numbers will pick up again? Either way I'll keep coming even if I'm the only one.

Readers may remember that during the last competition I won fairly easily in the Intermediate category. This month I was "volunteered" for the the top Expert category by Choi. I wasn't that concerned however, since I was thinking of going in the category anyways.

My biggest worry about entering the Expert category this month though, was that the Expert problems from the last competition were impossibly difficult for me, and even after a month of practice I could not finish more than even two moves on any of the five problems. Choi must have realised this, because this time around the difficulty of the Expert category problems was much easier, and more or less right where it should have been considering the calibre of climbers in the category this time. Long story short, I had a very good competition and managed to tie for first place in the Expert category (I later lost on a tie-break for having one more total attempt than the eventual winner).

* * * * *

On an unrelated, but personally exciting story that I will include here, I met Jenny from Summit at Ace gym on Monday. I had no idea she would be at Ace, and in fact I was planning to go to Summit this Friday to see her there. When I first saw her though, I said to myself "wow, that woman looks a lot like Jenny," but was thrown off by what appeared to be a three-inch growth spurt she experienced over the last six months (she's older than me though, which is why it's so surprising). I tried to go over and get a closer look, but at that time she was climbing on a wall and I could not get a good look at her face. I decided to put it out of my mind and went back to climbing, however later we crossed paths again and she seemed more surprised than me to be meeting up again in this gym. Apparently her business had relocated to the area, and I may get to see a lot more of her in the near future. (Don't go reading anything into that statement though, I know how you readers think!)

* * * * *

Thursday:

After class on Thursday, Elise and I went for our regular, weekly trip for coffee. On our way to the coffee shoppe, Elise mentioned that she knew of a store where I could get my favourite Korean snack, waffles. At first I wasn't that impressed because I can get a waffle in almost any subway station. However, Elise insisted this place was special.

I don't know what the store was called, but in the picture you can see a large number of signs plastered to the window. The two large, full window yellow sheets on the left side of the store front is the nearly 100 choice menu. Keep in mind, this store only sells waffles.

I'm not sure if this is unique, or if other places in the world offer the same kind of deliciousness, but when you ask for a "wapple" in Korea you are not eating an Eggo on a plate with a knife and fork drenched in maple syrup. Rather, in South Korea the round waffles are quickly reheated in an iron, slathered on one side with a sweet apple syrup and then with whipped cream on the other. The waffle is then folded in half, wrapped in a small piece of paper and handed to the anxious, hungry customer to be devoured (click here to see this process in action). All of this is wonderful, and it takes place for less than a dollar.

Back to the story though. As I mentioned, this store in particular sells nearly 100 variation of these folded waffles including green tea ice cream and coffee flavours. Furthermore, there is a sign on the window that says "do not talk to us." You can't ask any questions, nor can you give any compliments. You are merely permitted to call your order into the microphone. You are handed a token with the number of your order on it and then you wait for you number to show up on the sign. Even when your number does come up you aren't allowed to say "thank you." The employee inside opens up a small window, holds out a basket and you put your money in the basket. Of course, when I first heard about this it sounded ridiculous, but when I saw it in person it was really quite funny. I will definitely be coming back here in the future to sample some of the other choices.

* * * * *

Friday:

This morning I woke up completely exhausted (that's not new though), but when I looked in the mirror my eyes were completely blood shot (that was). My eyes looked like an Interstate road map there were so many red lines; it was actually a little scary. While I have been working less than your average Korean, it seems the stresses of big-big city living (about 14 million people in the greater metropolitan area) and trying to teach over 120 students a day who don't actually speak the same language you do have started to take their toll. That said, I've managed to make it two months working around walking virus factories without getting seriously sick, so I think I am still doing alright.

As I mentioned earlier, I had planned to go to Summit Climbing Centre after work today to see Mr. Chang and everyone else. However, the night before, my room mate Lee told me that Aeri, Hyeun-a's manager whom I met in March, was getting married today and that she had invited me. The incredibly short notice and disappointment about not being able to climb aside, I figured it was a rare opportunity for a foreigner to experience a Korean wedding, and so I agreed to come along.

Obviously I can't speak for the rural areas in Korea, but weddings in Seoul weddings seem to happen as quickly and efficiently as just about everything else. This wedding hall could only be rented for a maximum of two hours, so to save time the bride was on display in her wedding dress for individual pictures with guests before the wedding. There were no bridesmaids or groomsmen at the wedding, nor was there even a best man or maid of honour. (Correction: there were none that I could see taking part in the ceremony, they may still have existed.) The groom walked down the aisle first, followed almost immediately by the bride and her father. The wedding process itself lasted only 18 minutes (I timed it), and even that probably could have been trimmed down a bit more - I heard the old man in charge of the proceedings say "happy" more than once, so he may want to work on that in the future. After the whole ring thing and the official pronouncement, the immediate family took a group photo with the bride and groom, followed by a group photo with friends in which I took part.

Now some notes on everything else. The groom looked particularly handsome in his tuxedo, but the bride chose to wear the standard Victorian style white wedding gown that almost every woman seems to wear to their wedding. For the record I hate these dresses and consider wearing one to a wedding as a justifiable grounds for the groom walking out before he even gets marriage. They're ridiculously expensive, and show a lack of judgement that could severely put the family and its children at risk in the future. Not only that, they look hideous. The trail was so long on this one, that the bride needed a personal assistant to pick the tail up and carry it around and then replace it for every photo if she moved even a step. Do I feel bad for making fun of the bride? Sure, she is my friend, but I just really hate wedding gowns (and weddings). To be honest though, I was a little surprised that she wore the dress, since I figured this would be one of those weddings in which the direct participants all wore hanboks (remember those colourful outfits the kids wore for Chuseok?), but that must be a family choice and not necessarily a cultural norm.

After the wedding there was a massive catered banquet. This was the real reason I think I was invited along in the first place (by Lee, not by Aeri). While I was told not to take part in the tradition, every guest is expected to pay money to the bride/groom as their gift, usually in the form of $50 to $100. If you don't pay you don't get a ticket to the buffet. The rationale is that on your own wedding day you will be repaid by your guests and so everything will work out. Lee is not necessarily happy about this custom, and told me the night before "don't eat a big lunch tomorrow because I need you to eat lots of food at the wedding so I can get my money's worth." I did my best and went back to the buffet table three times (not including desert). Lee later thanked me for my "sacrifice."

* * * * *

On Saturday (today for most of you reading this blog in Canada) I was supposed to take part in a blind date. However, the young woman in question apparently got sick and had to back out. I wasn't that worried though as I really just wanted to spend all day watching The Young Turks radio show on YouTube (which I did).

Koreans seem to be afraid of interacting in a friendly manner with strangers (I really have heard Koreans say they're afraid of it), so one of the few acceptable way for them to meet members of the opposite sex to marry is to be set up on a blind date by a mutual friend. These blind dates are actually called "meetings" by the Koreans. I only mention that because it leads to a funny story.

For my work I have to attend bi-monthly "tutorial" sessions in which I am given the materials to more effectively teach my lessons for the next two weeks. (Actually, during the time frame for the context of this story I was attending them every week.) The meetings are rather long, and until this week they took place in a completely different city called Bucheon. Consequently I could never climb on a day in which I had a tutorial. When asked why I couldn't climb by the members of Ace I used to tell them that I had a "meeting." For a few weeks until the misunderstanding was cleared up, all of the members of Ace thought I must be the most popular playboy in Seoul.

Episode 22: In Which DFM Is A Mime, And Becomes A National Hero

On the five minute walk from the subway to my house I pass no less than three hair dressers. For the first few weeks I was comfortable in my fresh hair cut, and naively felt I would not need to learn how to get a hair cut in Korean from one of them (my hair cut the last time at the Sauna was procured with the help of Lee). However, for the past two weeks I've felt my hair has been getting a little shaggy. Even still, I had let it go this long, but on Thursday I caught Sticker Girl trying to flatten down some of my wild curls that were sticking out worse than Alfalfa's cowlick, so I figured that I could wait no longer.

While I did not know how to say "make me handsome please," in Korean, I did at least know how much my hair cut would cost. A number of weeks ago, one of the climbers at Ace had received a new hair cut and he told me it cost him $8, and that it was the same price everywhere. When I told him in Canada it would cost him over $16 he nearly fell off the wall he was climbing.

Back to today. When I came in to the shop it was empty and the two stylists jumped up out of their seats in surprise (I'm pretty sure I'm the only foreigner they've seen in this neighbourhood). I had planned to stumble through some awkward Korean, but settled on just holding my hair out and making a cutting action with my fingers. The message got through and they had me sit down in one of the chairs.

The stylist asked me if I understood Korean (in Korean obviously), and I responded "a little." It's funny, because whenever Koreans tell me they only understand "a little" English, we are usually able to have a basic conversation. Up until now I've always been saying I understand "a little" Korean, but know full well that if they ask anything more complex than "hello" I'll be lost. However, my studying has really been paying off and I have had quite a few brief conversations in Korean the past few weeks. I can even understand what is being said fairly well, even if I cannot always answer, so I might actually be justified in using the phrase "a little" as a response now.

In Canada, I usually get my mom to buzz my head with a pair of cheap electric hair trimmers that barely work. While I was confident the young professional could make a reasonable approximation of the "roughly even" template left over from my last shear job, I was not sure how I would tell her what I wanted done.

When she did ask me in Korean how I wanted my hair cut (at least I think that's what she asked, all I could understand was "hair") I respond by showing her a half-inch space between my fingers. I assume she took this to mean I wanted it short, but since I heard her say "a little," in Korean, she could also have thought I only wanted half an inch taken off. Either way I wasn't too worried, as my hair was only about an inch long to begin with.

In the end, things worked out well and I'm happy with the results. And what's more, I'll be free from Sticker Girl's fussings for at least another three weeks.

Today was a big day for another reason as well. Some time ago I wrote about trying to memorize the song Superman, by Norazo. Well, it's been about two weeks since then, and after "studying" every day I can finally announce that I, DFM, have memorized and can sing every word of the song. Even though I'm probably the only foreigner to have undertaken this monumental task, I'm fully aware that it is still not likely to help me get a date. That said, the boys at my school will think I'm a National Hero, and that's all that really matters isn't it?

Of course, this means I need a new song to learn. Do not worry though, last week I noticed a really catchy song playing at Ace, and I have copied it on to my thumb drive MandDFM lent me. It's called 달이 차오른다 (roughly Englishised as "tali cha-o-leun-da"), and is sung by the indie Korean band Jang Ki-ha and The Faces.

Now you're probably thinking that I couldn't possibly give you any more good news than that. However, I have a special offer only for those readers who are reading this blog on an electronic image producing device.

For the past many weeks I've been working on my endurance at Ace climbing gym and today I had a major breakthrough. There are two routes at the gym which I have hitherto been unable to complete. One is only 32 moves, but takes place entirely on the horizontal roof of a cave, parallel to the ground. The other is a monstrous 100 move mega-circuit. Normally I lack the endurance to complete even twenty move routes but my hard work and diligent practice must have paid off, because today I was able to finish both of these routes from start to finish.

While I am both happy and relieved to have finally completed the 100 move route (it's Korean name literally translates into "100 Move Route"), I must be careful not to get too confident. Ji-hyeun can complete all 100 moves and then turn around and head the other direction all the way back to the beginning. And, as if that weren't incredible enough, the strongest climber in the gym (who was away on a climbing trip during my last visit to Korea) can go from the start to the finish, and then back to the start again four times. That's 800 moves! He'd better watch himself though. I've really been improving, and in another two lifetimes I think I might be able to match him.

Episode 19: In Which DFM Gets A Fever (That Might Be A Tumour), And Makes Another Surprise Visit

Last Thursday I developed a sore throat, and what with all my singing on Friday and talking with Kyu-rhang on Saturday I did not do it any favours. My immune system is exceptionally strong and I was able to heal up by Monday morning, but in the process of healing my throat it (my immune system) must have forgotten about the rest of my body, and before lunch on Monday I noticed I was suffering from a light fever.

My fever persisted through Tuesday night (perhaps I should not have gone climbing on Monday or Tuesday, and the hard climbing both nights probably didn't help either). That said, I still managed to get over 8 hours of sleep both nights, and even though my body had been sore all over, by Wednesday morning (today) I was starting to feel a fair bit better.

After work on Tuesday, I had asked my boss some key questions about his company's educational philosophy in the hopes of being able to modify my teaching style to better succeed in helping the children improve their English speaking ability (pretty much everyone's goal in Korea, for better or worse). One of my goals following the highly informative session was to increase the amount of time I spent communicating in English with each child individually. I should have started this earlier, because the results at school today were fantastic.

Until today (Wednesday) I had thought that with the exception of my one Australian gyopo (Korean who has lived abroad for an extended period of time) student, none of my children could speak in complete sentences. However, one six-year-old boy (Korean age, subtract one year for Canadian age), whom I already knew was exceptionally bright, absolutely blew me away. I had sat down with him and wished him a happy Chuseok. This is the unedited answer I received: "Chuseok is Korean Thanksgiving. It is a National Holiday." I have taught kindergarten kids in Canada and did not even hear speaking that well from some of them.

Another impossibly cute girl, was so advanced I took my personal minute with her to teach the difference between "who is it?" and "whose is it?" Considering the majority of her classmates still answer "I'm seven years old" when I ask them how they're doing, I consider this a major milestone.

....

By the afternoon I was feeling nearly recovered and decided to continue with my earlier plan to visit Summit Sports Climbing Centre again.

While I normally climb at Ace Climbing Centre because of the camaraderie and the uncommon (for Korea) focus on hard bouldering, I feel somewhat loyal to Summit because the owner gave me a present on my first visit back in March. During my last stay I believe I went to Summit at least four different times. Unfortunately, I have so far been far busy working every day to make it over to see Mr. Chang and my friends at Summit this trip, but last night I brought home my climbing shoes and shorts from my Ace locker in preparation for my big return today.

Just like my surprise return to Ace, I did not tell anyone at Summit that I was returning to Korea (I also did not want anyone to feel slighted if I did not show up for a few weeks or more, like it has been). When I showed up and knocked on Mr. Chang's office door - and he looked up - he nearly fell off his chair in surprise. It was the reaction I was hoping for, so the return can be considered a success. I did not get to see the reactions of any of my other Summit friends though because no one else I knew was there.

Although it seems that none of the routes have changed, many of the climbers have. Summit gym is located near a number of large universities and so the climbing population is constantly changing as the students change or their schedules become busier. Additionally, when I was here in April I was the only foreigner, but now there is an American (whom I have actually met already when he dropped in at Ace last week), an Australian, and another Canadian. I'm not sure if Yu-seok (sounds unfortunately like "You Suck") or Hyundai (his real name) are still there, but Mr. Chang told me "Bin" (whom I had met and helped climb across the "advanced" wall for the first time on one of my visits) had left on a one-year student exchange to America. Jenny wasn't there today, but Mr. Chang told me she still climbs there. Later, Mr. Chang actually phoned her up and handed me the phone without telling her it was me. When I told her who I was, she said, "really?" Followed by Korea's favourite English expression, "oh my God!"

That's it for today, but tomorrow I have my second meeting with the English club, and this long weekend is Chuseok (my schedule is already full), so there should be lots to read about in the near future.

(Note: If you read the whole post trying to find out about my tumour, it doesn't actually exist. It's actually just a reference to "Lowell" from The Kindergarten Cop.)

Episode 13: In Which DFM Watches Paint Dry, And A Korean Tries To Make Him Go Bald

During my last trip I wrote about the songs that the children sang in their classrooms every morning. The last song in the video from the above link is called "Tomi the Baby Squirrel." It is my favourite song that the children then sang and now still sing, and I recently found the lyrics and learned the words.

Today at school I broke out my rendition of the song and it was a big hit. In one class Tae kwon do Boy (the boy punching in the picture halfway down the linked page), nearly lost his mind. There was then frantic discussion between the children in the class, and I heard "Korean person" mentioned a few times, so I'm not sure what to take away from that. Later, in the same class that sang the song in the video everyone was so impressed that the teacher played the song on the piano and we all sang it together. It was a proud moment.

In other news at the school, the 6-year-olds were having a Mini-Olympics as part of a school wide "sports unit" on which each of the classes are working. There are three six-year-old classes at the school and they were somehow split into two teams before I arrived. One team was Team Kim Yu-na (World Champion and record-holding 17-year-old Korean figure skating phenom, who now lives and trains in Canada), and the other was Team Pak Tae-won (gold and silver medal winner at the 2008 Olympics, and the first Korean swimmer to ever win an Olympic medal in swimming).

(Both teams awaiting the start of "throw as many balls as you can as fast as you can and hope some of them land in the bucket so you can score" event.)

(Team Kim Yu-na dominating the tug-of-war event).

The "events" were well organized by the Korean teachers, with additional bonus games and prizes, and all the children had fun adapting Korean baseball player cheers to their respective team names (it helps that every name in Korea consists of three syllables, so they are completely interchangeable). Later in the day, while some of the girls were waiting for their ballet class to start, I took out one of the drums because the girls wanted to do the cheers again.

During the events, the teachers would play Korean songs that the children enjoy. One song that is impossibly popular with the children is the hilarious Norazo song, "Superman." Woojin uses this song for the children's warm-up during Phys Ed class on Mondays, and I had always wondered what its name was until one of the teachers told me today. I have since added it to my list of Korean songs I will memorize in an attempt to impress the children, not to mention I like the song.

After school some of the children stay until 6:00 or later because their parents have opted for baby sitting. I always feel bad for the Korean teachers who have to stay until 7:30 PM every day, are forced to babysit on Saturdays too, and still make at least $600 less a month than I do. I also think it's funny that foreign teachers who get paid more, do less, and finish at 3:00 PM can't figure out why some of the Korean teachers are not more happy to see them (especially since the Korean teacher always has to stay and assist the foreign teacher as well).

After school today, some of the girls cornered me after school and made me sit down on a tiny chair about six inches off the ground. They proceeded to tie a cape around my neck and give me a "hair cut." After my ears had been lowered I had my hair combed, albeit rather aggressively it seemed for a “beauty salon.” The Korean English teacher joked that if I wasn't careful I'd lose my hair. In Korea it seems that everyone is always afraid that I will lose my hair, either from acid rain, or stress, or hair cuts. I should just shave it all off as a joke one day.

. . . . .

While normally I would go to climbing after work, today was the day of the monthly Ace climbing competition so I decided to go home first and rest. I was actually a little surprised when Ji-hyeun had told me earlier this week that the competition was today, because it seems like just two weeks ago that I had come in to surprise her with my return and she told me that I had just missed the competition and would have to wait four more weeks for this one. Time really is flying by now.

On my way home to rest though, I had perhaps the biggest case of culture shock I've experienced in my three total months in Korea. A road works crew was repainting the lines on the road leading from the subway station to my home. However, there were just four men, and the road was not closed. I watched them for a few minutes, and the efficiency with which they worked was nothing short of amazing.

At the time I was watching them they were working on repainting the yellow and white lines crossing the entire width of a five foot wide (front to back) and twenty foot long (curb to curb) speed bump. One man would put a wedge down at the front of the bump. A second man moved the painting machine into position by placing its front wheels against the wedge. A third man would then place a wedge at the back of the hump. The fourth man stood behind the first man and encouraged the other men to hurry, while looking over their shoulders to make sure there were no cars coming.

The machine they were using seemed to shoot flames from underneath it to dry the paint almost instantly as soon as it was applied. I saw some other pedestrians test a freshly painted stripe with their shoes, and not a single drop of paint was disturbed. When lines on the road are repainted in Alberta, you can see yellow or white tire tracks turning left through the intersection after they've driven through the crosswalk that took a group of unionized workers three days to repaint.

I rested at home for one hour before leaving again to head for the competition. When I returned to the same site, the workers were gone, and all three speed bumps on the road had been completely repainted in yellow and white alternating stripes across their entire length.

. . . . .

Earlier in the day, Ji-hyeun had sent me an sms message (text message) telling me not to forget about the competition because she had something to give me. A number of days (if not weeks) prior I had told Ji-hyeun that I needed to buy some Korean books for children so that I could practice my Korean. When I arrived at the gym today everyone had a silly grin on their face, and Ji-hyeun presented me with two classic David Shannon children's books translated into Korean: David Goes To Kindergarten, and No, David! I was pretty impressed with the thought she put into the gift, since a) I teach kindergarten and b) David is pretty close to DFM.

The competition this month was pretty small, with only about fifteen people attending. I ended up winning my division, but since there was only one other competitor in the division it was hard to feel overly proud. After the climbing we all went up to the “Sky Lounge” (just the roof of the building in which Ace is located) and a massive barbecue was prepared.

We were cooking on the old fashioned charcoal barbecues (forgive me Hank Hill), but unlike when my family used to use one of these, the Koreans did not try to light the charcoal bricks with matches or other such primitive lighting tools. I suspect Koreans would die if they had to wait that long for anything, so they use a propane torch to speed up the process exponentially.

Nothing special to report about the eating, just the usual great time I always have eating with Ace climbers. However, this time I attempted to eat an entire hot green gochu pepper. You may remember that I mentioned in a previous post that these were by far the spiciest things to eat in Korea. My last attempt was hiking with Perry way back in March. It didn't go so well as I started hiccuping aggressively and I thought my mouth was burning so badly I thought it was on fire.

This time I thought I had adapted a little better to the spicy cuisine here, and felt it might be time to give the demon pepper another try. I still hiccuped like mad, and my eyes were watering so badly I couldn't see, but I managed to endure three bites over the course of the night. I'd say the pepper was four bites long, so next time that gives me something to aim for.

Episode 9: Climbing Trip, Part 3

This episode really has nothing to do with the climbing. Instead it is something of a "director's cut" DVD, in which I write about all the bits of information I couldn't find room or time for in the other episodes.

First, I think the thing that impressed me most about climbing in Korea was the trust Koreans have in other climbers not to steal their stuff. On quite a few routes we found a full set of quick draws (the metal clips that your rope goes through) already left on the bolts in the rock. At an average of about $15 per draw, this meant that each route had over $100 of quick draws left on it, supposedly to be retrieved later.

Actually, our own group left a number of quick draws up over Saturday night, and sure enough they were still there when we returned the next day. We even left our rope bags hidden under a rock to save weight, and those are about $200 for a decent sized bundle. Back at the camp we had left all our valuables in the tent all day, unattended, and they were still there when we came back. Upon our arrival after Sunday's climbing, we found a family had patiently waited all day for our return so that they could ask us for a peek inside.

The second most impressive thing about the trip were the size of the bees. Redish, with black stripes, the Koreans call them "horse bees," and I would say they are roughly twice the size or more of a normal bumble bee. The Koreans told me that although they have the temperment of a normal bumble bee they can sting multiple times without dieing, and that the venom from one horse bee can knock a grown man out, but if three bees sting you it can bring death.

Since I am talking about large insects anyways, I should take this opportunity to mention that last week I saw a mantis for the first time in person. It was in a tree just over my head, brown in colour, and about five to six inches long. While it did not frighten me at the time, I suppose there was a miniscule (and by "a miniscule" I mean zero) chance it could have accidentally dropped out of the tree on my head and proceeded to hack and slash me to... well, pain I suppose. Now that I think about it, I should have killed every mantis in the world for this one having the gull to scare me.

On the trip back home I saw three separate police cars on the highway with their lights flashing. I've mentioned before that I don't think too highly of the Korean police officer's work ethic, so I was amazed to see flashing lights on a highway actually belonging to a moving vehicle. In fact, until this time all of the flashing red and blue lights I had seen were just police lights attached to a pole or a parked vehicle (not a police car), in an attempt to trick drivers into slowing down.

Nearer to Seoul, I also saw a woman with her driver's side window rolled all the way down, and her Chihuahua literally hanging halfway out the window, whilst standing on her lap. That one just made me shake my head.

However, none of these things tops the fact that while listening to some Korean radio on the way home, the DJ actually played "Youth Gone Wild," by Skid Row. I've often felt that in many ways some of the cultural trends in Korea mimic those of Canada in the late '70s, and early '80s. However, I never thought I'd hear late '80s hair metal on the radio, and especially not that song (note: I really like the song, I'm just not certain it belongs on "modern radio.")

To finish off I'll include a few pictures of the climbing, etc. for those of you who had expressed interest.

(This is a "Tourist Guiding Map" of the area in which we were hiking. You can see the red dot which marks where location of the map. However, unless you are a tourist who can understand Korean, you might have no idea where to go from there.)

(I didn't get any pictures of the "horse bees," because they don't like to cooperate by staying still - unless it's to hover around your legs while you try to shoo them away - but check out the size of the beetles compared to Choi's fingers to give you an idea of the size of insects one finds in Korea.)

(One of the many beautiful tiger lillies in this section of Seonunsan Provincial Park. My camera decided to focus on the background for this shot, but I feel it makes for a more interesting picture so I decided to keep it anyways. I cannot remember the exact name of this flower in Korean, but Ji-Hyeun told me it means something similar to "longing for a loved one you can never see." When the flower is in bloom the leaves are not visible, but when the bloom is over, the leaves come out while the petals disappear. The Koreans compare this situation to what Romeo and Juliet experienced, and thus the rationale.)

(Choi's DSLR takes a much better picture of this scene- as he can change the depth of focus - but these are a bunch of large rocks Choi managed to balance on their ends. I tried it, and the points are much smaller than they look in the picture; i.e., it was quite hard.)

(I can't remember her name, but the woman in front is the same woman who finished her 5.12a project this weekend. Here she watches Rina Park climbing Baek-am 3, 5.10b, while Ji-hyeun belays.)

(Mystery 5.12a woman's boyfriend and my climbing/belay partner, Han-soung, climbs Baek-am 3, 5.10b.)

(This is Korean language student, originally from Los Angeles now studying in Jeju-do, attempting to climb the "harder than it's graded" route, JCC 3, 5.11b. Ji-hyeun and Rina both said I could climb this route because I have good footwork, but considering this woman flashed Baek-am 5, 5.11a (finished the route on her first time), and it took me 6 tries, I'm not so certain I believe them. Then again, they also said I could send a 5.11a before this trip and I didn't believe them then, either.)

(Choi making easy work of Baek-am 5, 5.11a.)

(Ji-hyeun, looking a lot like Choi, also making Baek-am 5 look easy.)

Episode 8: Climbing Trip, Part 2

Saturday morning we embarked on the one-hour hike to reach the climbing crag. It was hot and muggy out, and the terrain was steep. Along the way we passed pumpkin plants, tiger lillies, a green tea field where a famous romantic Korean TV scene was filmed, and a 1000-year-old temple. There were also fantastically beautiful streams, and this view (below), which in person was worth the trip just to see (even if I had not gone climbing).

When we got to the mountain I was in awe of all the giant jugs (large, easy to grip holds) I saw. I used to wonder why companies would make artificial humongous holds that were easy to hold onto, when every route I had seen climbing outdoors (to be fair, not that many) seemed to contain holds you could barely see. On this mountain though, there seemed to be holes so big I could crawl inside of them! (Later I did climb into one of them and Ji-hyeun said the rock "ate me.")

The group set up on a large rock and we walked down the crag a short ways to set up at the "easy route." I figured that this was the easiest route on the wall and we would be doing it as a warm-up for the 5.10b everyone figured I could climb this trip. I also figured it would be graded a 5.9 (within my capabilities for a warm up).

The route was called "Baek-am 3" (pronounced Beckam, as in David Beckham), which translates literally to White Rock (route) 3. My previous attempts at outdoor rock climbing had been less than brilliant (climbing a good two full number grades - 8 letter grades - below my highest gym grade). This was my sixth try at sport climbing outdoors though, so I was finally starting to become more comfortable and figured I could at least climb a 5.10b (my previous best outdoor climb being a 5.10a).

I flashed my "warm up" route and when I came down everyone said, "wow, you're footwork is very good" (it ought to be after more than five years instructing in a climbing gym). "You can flash 5.10b!" I said, "thank you... where is the 5.10b?" I was quite surprised when everyone pointed at the route I had just climbed. It hadn't actually seemed that difficult, which I attribute to the fact that I thought it was only a 5.9 and was therefore more confident.

With my new revelation that confidence makes climbing easier, I moved to the next hardest route at the crag, the 5.11a classic, Baek-am 5. The first day I worked the route three times on top rope, and once on lead (harder, with longer falls). Each time I tried though, I fell on the last move. I knew I could easily do the last two moves, because I had completed them every time after resting, but I just could not muster the endurance to complete the route in one clean run and I was starting to lose confidence.

On Sunday I was still tired from my all out effort on Saturday. I only attempted the route twice, and both of those were on lead. On my first attempt I finally made the last move, but could not muster the energy to make the final match - which is by far the crux of the route. The desperation attempt to make the final hold produced a big fall, but I was expecting this. I was not, however, expecting my foot to slip under the rope as this happened. On the subsequent fall, the rope stretched violently across the back of my calf and I received a gigantic rope burn that scorched the top few layers of skin right off my leg. Choi cleaned the wound out with rubbing alcohol, which stung quite badly and caused my to cringe and twitch every time the torture juice touched me. My belay partner thought this was quite funny, and he laughed every time I jumped or twitched.

(When I showed the kids at school my giant scab, one of the little girls thought that my leg was hot because she heard it had been burned. She bent over near my leg and blew on it to cool it down. Bless her heart.)

After a lunch and a rest I decided to muster what little energy remained for what I decided would be my sixth and final attempt for the trip. While I felt a little tired, I had a secret weapon. On my last attempt, I had discovered a trick resting maneuver in which I wedged my forearm between my knee and the top of a small "cave" in the wall. I call it an advanced knee bar, since my lower leg was too short to do a regular knee bar.

The rest allowed me enough time to recuperate, and I was finally able to complete the final move. I felt like Chris Sharma in many ways as I hung on the rope for a minute at the top of my route: I had completed a back-to-the-wall, stand on a ledge rest like he did on Clark Mountain in the DVD King Lines (if you've seen it, you know what I'm talking about), I had overcome my anxieties and was able to relax and enjoy the route, and I had dedicated myself fully to the route. I suppose the only differences would be that Chris Sharma gets paid to climb the hardest routes in the world, and it takes him upwards of four years to finish some of them, whereas I had struggled to climb something he would have finished-off as a thirteen-year-old.

On the Saturday, one of the women had completed a 5.12 "project"she had been working on for the last 2 or 3 years, and to celebrate we ate a 3 course dinner (made on the portable stove, with camping utensils and dishes) consisting of a vegetable and beef curry, a samgyeupsal-like dish, but with eel as the meat instead of pork, and some corn with cheese melted over it. Of course there were multiple side dishes too just like at a Korean restaurant. Every time I saw one of the Koreans making a new dish, I would say "amazing!" which garnered many laughs. I tried to explain the glory of hot dogs and marshmallows to them, but they didn't seem to make the connection with how that was better than the 3 course feast. I guess they don't have The Alberta Advantage over here though, so it's not really their fault.

Episode 6: The Return of Sticker Girl and Balance Boy

It has been a busy busy week, and my first full week of teaching (although it's not yet done). So far the general trend for the week has been to get up at 7:00 AM, leave at 8:00 for a 1 hour commute, go climbing for two to three hours after work, and then commute an hour back home again. I usually do not get home until 9:30 or 10:00 PM every night. After trying to stuff a small supper into my starving belly I am barely able to summon the energy to take off my clothes before crashing into bed John Kimble style. (You mean you watch other movies besides Kindergarten Cop? STAHP IT!)

However, today (Thursday) was a good day, and since I have to do my laundry before leaving on a three day rock climbing adventure tomorrow night I figured I would take the forced opportunity to update everyone on my adventures. In keeping with my goal of not boring everyone with the details of my teaching though, I'll only highlight some of the exciting moments, since teaching is after all a big part of what I do here, not to mention why I'm back again in the first place.

My first day back to my old kindergarten was a great day, and I was surprised that many of the students' faces lit up with joy when they saw me; I had expected them to forget me. By my third day there (today) though, it was as if I had never left.

The school year starts in March here, so all of the students were still the same, which meant all of the old favourites were back too. There was Fight Girl, Sticker Girl (who gave me a Sticker on my first day back), Balance Boy (Lew) and Louis. They were all the same, except Fight Girl doesn't fight as much, and Louis isn't quite as wild from what I can see, but Sticker Girl still plays practical jokes on me. Some of you might also remember the girl that used to follow me around silently and stare at me from the top of the stairs. Well now you wouldn't recognize her; she smiles all the time and talks non-stop.

Other than that, nothing much to report besides going to work and going climbing. I have been studying my Korean every day and I now know enough Korean grammar to formulate my own basic sentences (a real milestone). I'll be gone all of this weekend on a climbing trip, so there won't be any updates in the near future. However, check back some time next week to hear about what will hopefully have been a successful journey.

Episode 3: In Which DFM Is Told He Smells Pretty, But Is Also That He Should Put A Paper Bag On His Head

Today was my first day of teaching. I won't bore everyone with all the details of every day this year, but things would seem to have started ominously as I somehow managed to mistime my journey and arrive an hour and a half early. This led to an awkward conversation between myself and the director who had very limited knowledge of English. I salvaged the situation though when I managed to "accidentally" under guessed her age by 10 years (34 v. 44), thus finding myself rewarded with the most delicious citrus juice in the world from the famous Jeju island.

Once I got into the class and started teaching though, things were back to normal and I felt like I had never left. Although it was a different school the children behaved exactly the same as my other students. They asked if I was a friend of their old teacher, J.M., and when I said I was they fell down with excitement (or horror) and squealed with delight. After that I was called J.M. or Seth (yup, the same teacher who taught at my other school and for whom I was also mistaken also appears to have taught here too) or Canada Teacher by all the students. I suspected they were having me on though, so when one of the girls asked me what my name was I said "J.M." She scrunched up her face and said, "nooo!" So I thought about it and said, "Seth." "Noooo!" "Hmm... DFM?" "Yes! Good job." "Thank-you."

Another humourous situation involved my bodywash. I have a bodywash by L'Oreal I use every day. One of the young girls smelled it and said that I stunk. But then later one of the boys smelled my arm and said "pretty!" He then proceeded to try and smell the rest of me. I'm not sure what the marketers of L'Oreal Body Wash for men would think about this, or even what I think about it. It may just another or the many closeted aspects of Korean culture I've yet to learn about though.

After work I went to Ace to buy a three month membership and start getting back into climbing shape. Last time I was here I completely ignored every balancing muscle to climbing in my body and paid the price for it with a months long recovery process for a destroyed shoulder. This time I have undertaken a daily push up and neck routine in my room (finally I have a room big enough in which to do push ups), and a bench press, shoulder press/rotator cuff program at Ace Climbing Centre's workout area. If the results are impressive I'll post an article on The Kindergarten Cop blog.

While climbing I managed to communicate to the regulars in limited, but well chosen Korean. I was quite proud of myself since I have endeavoured to learn at least two new Korean words or phrases every day for the remainder of my stay, and this was a sign that my work up until this point was starting to pay off. Earlier in the day I was even told that if I put a bag over my head people would think I was Korean. Unfortunately the comments about my Koreanisation have not all filled me with joy. Ji-hyeun told me that when she hears me speak English now, she sometimes thinks I am not a Native Speaker (It's official, I speak Konglish).

Episode 64: In Which DFM Falls Back Into Old Habits And Says Some More Good-Byes

Today was supposed to be a rest day in which I packed up my things and said good-bye to everyone.  As per the norm with this trip though, things just could not be that easy.  

My boss phoned me earlier in the week and told me that he needed me to come back into work one more day to show the new guy what I had been doing, so back to work I went one more time.

Today was actually a fun day though, and many of the classes went outside to do their work because the weather was so nice.  I tried to just relax and play with the kids, but my teacher instincts soon kicked in and I found myself back to being "Canada teacher!" (캐나다 선생님 for my Korean readers.)

It was neat to finally get to see Seth ("Australia teacher!").  Seth was actually the person I had filled in for originally when I first started teaching back in March, and at the time many of the children thought I was Seth.  To see both of us together threw some of them for a real loop, and Seth had some fun by telling everyone that he was from Canada and I was from Australia.

I wasn't sure how the kids would react to seeing me again after I had already told them I was leaving, but it was business as usual.  And by business as usual I mean playing "change the colour of the crayon inside of the plastic holder and then try to get DFM to guess the colour before laughing hysterically at him."  Oh, great fun.

Of course I had to go back to Summit and say good-bye to everyone there as well.  This time I met another new friend named Kyu-rhang.  For those of you who think she looks like all of my other friends, look closer.  Kyu-rhang has black hair and brown eyes, whereas my other Korean friends have brown eyes and black hair.

I also had to say good-bye to Hyeun-A.  Lee had made her pay for my KFC meal on our first date, so this time I decided to do the Korean thing and pay for her meal.  She hates coming to Itaewon, but she made an exception tonight because I said there was a fantastic ice cream shop near my place.  Hyeun-A gave me a letter afterwards, but said it was all in Korean so I would not be able to read it unless I studied my Korean very hard when I went back to Canada.

I went to bed wishing I had another week in Korea, and wishing I had gotten a chance to say good-bye to everyone else as well.