Korea is suck?

This is some Japanese trash-talk at the ferry terminal. The koreans came back with some good ones but this was the best.



The first time I went to Japan, I found myself disagreeing with those that say it's so much cleaner and more beautiful than Korea, but I couldn't dispute it this time. Actually, Japan is cleaner than anything I've ever seen. In some parts, they have heavy fines for any sort of littering. And the smokers walk around with personal, pocket ashtrays. After being in Korea so long, I'm blown away by all the parks and random gardens throughout the city. Sure, in Korea, there's plenty of beautiful scenes, but that's usually in the mountainous country between the major cities. So there's the knock on Korea, now I'll attack Japan. In my couple days there, I couldn't believe how it was possible for a country this modern to know so little English. Bart and I met some kind people, I could see in their eyes they wanted to help us but with no Japanese on our end, and little more coming from them, communication was impossible. I take for granted how much basic English is ingrained in Korea. We get frustrated, but they all know "yes, no, i don't know, ok, same, sorry, excuse me, where, when, etc." Just looking at a busy street from each of the countries would show the difference. In Korea, like Elgin with spanish, nearly every sign has some English in it. This is not the same in Japan. It seems they're just so strong that they don't need to push English on their people. And good for them. As difficult as it is, it's kind of refreshing to be as helpless as other foreigners are at times. This time I went to Japan for legal reasons and I'm happy to say I'm now legal.

Whenever we get to Korea, the first stop has got to be Wendys. And, as you can see from the pictures, they sell hotdogs as well as beer in Japanese Wendys. mmm....Making it Great!~

Japan Part Deux

Here you can see my office and the view from outside my office window. Sometimes I go up there just to look around and get a feel for the city.

My Campus

My 1st day and some old shots

The first few days

I remember how the boys became immediate friends over their love for Starcraft. There was a contagious, "awww," passing over the class as I walked in. It wasn't dreading, or jubilation, more a shared disbelief of my age, I think. It took a fortnight for one of them to ask my age. (I realized last night through my new friend Olly that British people really do use the word 'fortnight.' We had a shot to celebrate that.) I gave myself a couple of years, fearing some would be older than me and said, "27." Turns out they are all 19 or 20 year old freshman. The males will study for one year, then do their mandatory military service for two years and return to study after that. As I imagined they would, they spent most the class staring at their desktops, wishing the classroom was much bigger. I only meet these 40 students once a week so I'm forced to refer to them as "rainbow umbrella, pink glasses, lebron james or british patch" depending on their attire. They didn't seem to mind. I did the university trick of putting them into groups, walking around and commenting on their conversations. They were much better than I expected. I was beginning to feel worthless, thinking they had all the "practical english," (the name of the course), that they needed to survive in an English speaking country. One boy raised his hand and delivered a gold-medal question, "what did you do in Korea before you came to Busan?" Wow! They applauded when I told them I have a korean girlfriend and still the girls asked for my phone number after that. I just loved how respectful they were. I remember how they thanked me and bowed. The best part, after I ended class, they all remained seated, waiting for me to leave the classroom before they can go. How cool is that? 2 classes, 3pm to 6pm; that's my first day. I think this could be alright.
Outside of class, I'm starting to take advantage of the free-time with more reading, writing, guitar playing and Korean studying. Whenever it stops raining, I'll get on the campus courts and teach these students a different lesson. Actually, I played my first full-court game there a few days ago and an old, drunk and certainly crazy old man followed me up and down the court yelling, "Hey, America, GO HOME!" I used that as motivation and chalked up my first Busan triple-double. My fellow visiting professors all seem nice and not the least bit put off by my lack of qualifications. All but a few are over 40, married to a Korean women, have children and have worked at Pusan National University for 7 years or more. I've had to look elsewhere to find others more like myself. This weekend I met and hung out with a bar full of Brits. They taught me about the 'blokes' and the 'bees' as well as the new slang for gay, 'camp.' We drank along the beach with a gorgeous lit-up bridge dominating the view. Most don't believe me when I tell them I'm a teacher at PNU and then, after asking about my resume, we all share a laugh at how lucky I am. Probably the luckiest white-boy in Korea!

(I'll get pictures up as soon as the rain stops and I get a clear sky)