The most beautiful sight I've seen thus far are the dilapidated basketball courts all throughout this country: on mountains, in the jungles, sandwiched between churches or next to cemeteries. These Filipinos really love the game. The baskets are often make of bamboo with plastic tying it all together. The surfaces are usually dirt with large, metal scraps sticking up through the ground. And, oftentimes, there will be a goat strolling baseline to baseline or a pig asleep at the top of the key. The strange thing is the majority of these courts lay abandoned while dudes everywhere can be seen doing nothing more than lazily passing the time, shooting the shit with their neighbors. Is it too hot? Not enough money for a ball?
Yesterday, on Batayan Island, I found a guy near my age shooting around. He flashed me that pure, Filipino smile and invited me to join. After hitting a few sweet Dirk step-back Js, I noticed a crowd was gathering. From out of the jungles, under cars and off scooters, it seemd all the town's men were attracted to the courts like flies to a Koolaid spill. They cam shirtless, hungry and cautious. Eventually, a guy asked if I wanted to play 5 on 5. "Of course," I said. Then he explained that they always bet on their games and asked if I'd cover his team. As always, I was skeptical but Gally told me this was how they did it. Anyways, they only asked 1.50$ so I was happy to give it for a game.
Immediately, I saw that Filipinos really can ball. They all play in flip-flops and play on when one slips off. They aren't like Koreans, or even the Chinese when it comes to ball. They handle, cut, cash, rebound and finger-roll with style. And it was all very organized, with a ref to keep for disputes brief.
There were occasions when my teamates continually didn't get back on defense or dropped my sweet dime at the hoop that I wondered whether they were hustling me, losing on purpose. But they kept giving me the ball, and I kept punishing the mal-nourished on the post. We lost by one point, on a freethrow. A freethrow!!!??? Game point turned into some fiasco where we just foul 5 shots in a row until they get a freethrow to win. Eitherway, it was a good game and a crowd of tanned islanders went home happy. Next time, fearing the fix is in, I'll be less unselfish and, if they're really unlucky, I might UNLEASH THE SHEED!
Friday, December 19, 2008
Malling
I asked some Filipino guys my age what they do for fun on a day off and they responded, "malling." It was a very adolescent thing to say but it sounded oddly fun coming out of their excited faces. Upon entering the gigantic, festive, well-organized and modern mall, my attention was quickly drawn to the Sabarros Pizza. Holy shit, I thought, I'm so happy to see that joint, I feel like I'm 13 years old again. We went in and out of stores nad the staff smiled and welcomed but didn't harass me any extra for the color of my skin. I asked about an alarm clock and Gally said, "sure, let's to go Ace Hardware." Ace Hareware???!!!! In the Phillipines???!!! "Is it right next to the Weever's Music?" I asked. Shit, I congratulated her on her country's sucessful seige of my childhood. As our bodies started to weigh heawvier than the need for a TS, we found a movie theater upstairs and watched a uniquely, awful high-school vampire movie called, "Twilight." I kept wondering why these actors and filming crew even bothered. Luckily, Filipinos talk loudly throughout the movies, so I was easily distracted from the throw-up in front of me. I also was impressed by the lack of subtitles and I wondered if this wouldn't kick my Koreans into gear a bit. Then again, I must remember that I'll never watch a foreign film without subtitles; ethnocentricism be damned!
After the movie, I had "malled" myself down to nothing, so we made our way out. After the 12th frisk of the day, the doors opened and traffic screamed in chaotic fury, dirt-faced children started crying and pulling at my sleeves for money, the smell of exhaust and decomposing trash raged and I knew I was back in SE Asia and I missed the innocence of Sabarros, malls and childhood.
After the movie, I had "malled" myself down to nothing, so we made our way out. After the 12th frisk of the day, the doors opened and traffic screamed in chaotic fury, dirt-faced children started crying and pulling at my sleeves for money, the smell of exhaust and decomposing trash raged and I knew I was back in SE Asia and I missed the innocence of Sabarros, malls and childhood.
Day 1
The first day of sobriety is strange, to say the least. Gally is a saint. I feel so sorry for the angle the cards fell for this girl. She has an ambition unmatched, a beauty by any standards and the work ethic of a Samsung man. Gally has the top job in this city, and still shares a tiny room with her co-workers and lives in relative poverty. She works overnight, calling Americans and negotiates their finances and, when the business is done, she walks through rubble and graffiti to get home. She is hardly ever given time off to visit her family and sends nearly all her money home to support her widowed father. These are the kinds of sacrifices that go on all over impoverished countries and a Westerner like me is chest-out proud to be 27 and finally, completely financially independant from my father. What a croc! "Lucky, lucky, lucky," I tell her as I give a dollar to the 1st, then the 2nd Xmas caroling group. Lucky is how I feel!
Ballaholic
I've been jogging a lot to stop thinking about smoking and everywhere I go, little kids join in behind me and we run through the streets like Rocky. I'm not joking!
Monday, December 01, 2008
An Interesting Ariticle on North and South Korean Relations
No mention of Kim Jong-il
Glimpse of N Korea disappears
By John Sudworth BBC News, Seoul
Tourists and workers had become used to a more open border
The journey from Seoul to Kaesong is just a short drive between two cities on the same peninsula.
But the special tourist buses, which began running 12 months ago, are laden as much with symbolism as they are with passengers.
For thousands of South Koreans the chance to visit a real North Korean city, and to glimpse the reality of daily life, is an act of pilgrimage and time travel rolled into one.
At least it was.
From 1 December, the scenes of oxen-ploughed fields and Soviet-style cityscapes are once again out of bounds, hidden beyond one of the world's most impermeable borders.
That they were ever visible at all is remarkable.
From the end of the Korean war, for almost half a century, North-South relations were stuck in a seemingly unbreakable deadlock of hostility and mutual loathing.
'Sunshine policy'
Then in 1998 things began to change.
For the next decade, two successive liberal governments oversaw a "sunshine policy" of engaging, rather than isolating, the old enemy.
Billions of dollars in aid and investment were showered on North Korea, a country whose command economy was in tatters, and whose people had just suffered a devastating famine.
The Kaesong tourism project was only the latest development in what some commentators believed was to be a gradual thawing of hostilities between the two Koreas, and the slow opening up of the North.
Lee Myung-bak has insisted the North get rid of its nuclear bomb
But in February this year a newly elected conservative President, Lee Myung-bak, took office.
He made it clear that the policy of engagement would no longer be unconditional, insisting that the North get rid of its nuclear bomb, and improve its human rights, as a precondition for further aid and trade.
Nine months on and inter-Korean cooperation is back in deep freeze.
The most prestigious cross-border tourism project, the Kumgang resort complex on the North Korean east coast, has already been shut down after North Korean border guards shot dead an unarmed South Korean tourist in July.
Now, as well as the closure of the daily bus tours, North Korea has cut off almost all dialogue with the South, severing the telephone hot-lines as well as the only rail link, a freight train supplying a joint industrial zone.
The factory complex, close to the city of Kaesong, will also have to make do with fewer South Korean managers as the number allowed to travel across the border each day is to be curtailed.
So who is the real culprit in the current crisis?
The easy explanation, and the one put forward by Pyongyang of course, is that South Korea is entirely to blame.
The new administration in Seoul has seriously underestimated the North's willingness to put pride before economic advantage, the theory goes.
Rather than comply with the calls for faster nuclear disarmament and reform, a deeply angry North Korea seems perfectly willing to sacrifice the tens of millions of dollars it earns each year from the joint tourism projects.
Cargo trains will no longer run from South to North Korea
President Lee's political opponents take this view.
The main opposition Democratic Party has condemned what it calls "the continuation of the hawkish stance" and says Mr Lee must change his policy "before it is too late".
They want him to honour without precondition the previous agreements for further economic cooperation signed by his liberal predecessors.
But as always in Korean affairs there are plenty of credible observers ready to point the finger in entirely the opposite direction.
Contrasting citizens
They suggest that North Korea has never been comfortable with the mini-experiments in free market capitalism and bourgeois tourism trickling over its borders.
They have meant that 33,000 North Korean workers in the industrial zone have come to know their South Korean bosses.
And they've discovered that those bosses are not ogres or imperialist lap-dog stooges, but intelligent fellow Koreans with a standard of living they can't even dream of.
The North Korean citizens of Kaesong, a city without a private car in sight, witness the well-dressed visiting South Koreans in air conditioned coaches.
"At some point North Korea will face a tipping point and its elites will realise that it has failed," says Peter Beck, a professor at American University in Washington who specialises in Korean affairs.
"Engagement reinforces this fact."
So, the theory goes, North Korea is simply using the policies of new conservative government in Seoul as an excuse to disengage.
But perhaps there isn't really a crisis at all.
North Korea could simply be playing diplomatic hard-ball as usual, driving a wedge between allies by isolating South Korea while simultaneously trying to get closer to Washington as President-elect Barack Obama prepares for office.
The increasingly chilly relations, according to this explanation, are simply about calculated advantage, and could thaw again as quickly as they freeze.
As always with North Korea there is much speculation and very little hard fact.
Business uncertainty
Optimists point out that the new border restrictions stop short of a complete closure of the Kaesong industrial zone - at least for now.
The only thing that can be said for sure is that the uncertainty cannot be good for the nearly 90 South Korean companies that have set up business there.
And whatever its motivations, North Korea's recent actions have highlighted the dangers of too starry-eyed an approach to cross-border engagement.
In a recent article in the Korea Times, journalist and author Michael Breen raises the issue of political risk, given that investors, tourists and Southern politicians alike are subject to such unpredictability.
"You would think that only a raving lunatic would risk wealth and reputation dealing with North Korea," he writes.
"But it is surprising how many smart and well-meaning people get seduced into parting with them."
Glimpse of N Korea disappears
By John Sudworth BBC News, Seoul
Tourists and workers had become used to a more open border
The journey from Seoul to Kaesong is just a short drive between two cities on the same peninsula.
But the special tourist buses, which began running 12 months ago, are laden as much with symbolism as they are with passengers.
For thousands of South Koreans the chance to visit a real North Korean city, and to glimpse the reality of daily life, is an act of pilgrimage and time travel rolled into one.
At least it was.
From 1 December, the scenes of oxen-ploughed fields and Soviet-style cityscapes are once again out of bounds, hidden beyond one of the world's most impermeable borders.
That they were ever visible at all is remarkable.
From the end of the Korean war, for almost half a century, North-South relations were stuck in a seemingly unbreakable deadlock of hostility and mutual loathing.
'Sunshine policy'
Then in 1998 things began to change.
For the next decade, two successive liberal governments oversaw a "sunshine policy" of engaging, rather than isolating, the old enemy.
Billions of dollars in aid and investment were showered on North Korea, a country whose command economy was in tatters, and whose people had just suffered a devastating famine.
The Kaesong tourism project was only the latest development in what some commentators believed was to be a gradual thawing of hostilities between the two Koreas, and the slow opening up of the North.
Lee Myung-bak has insisted the North get rid of its nuclear bomb
But in February this year a newly elected conservative President, Lee Myung-bak, took office.
He made it clear that the policy of engagement would no longer be unconditional, insisting that the North get rid of its nuclear bomb, and improve its human rights, as a precondition for further aid and trade.
Nine months on and inter-Korean cooperation is back in deep freeze.
The most prestigious cross-border tourism project, the Kumgang resort complex on the North Korean east coast, has already been shut down after North Korean border guards shot dead an unarmed South Korean tourist in July.
Now, as well as the closure of the daily bus tours, North Korea has cut off almost all dialogue with the South, severing the telephone hot-lines as well as the only rail link, a freight train supplying a joint industrial zone.
The factory complex, close to the city of Kaesong, will also have to make do with fewer South Korean managers as the number allowed to travel across the border each day is to be curtailed.
So who is the real culprit in the current crisis?
The easy explanation, and the one put forward by Pyongyang of course, is that South Korea is entirely to blame.
The new administration in Seoul has seriously underestimated the North's willingness to put pride before economic advantage, the theory goes.
Rather than comply with the calls for faster nuclear disarmament and reform, a deeply angry North Korea seems perfectly willing to sacrifice the tens of millions of dollars it earns each year from the joint tourism projects.
Cargo trains will no longer run from South to North Korea
President Lee's political opponents take this view.
The main opposition Democratic Party has condemned what it calls "the continuation of the hawkish stance" and says Mr Lee must change his policy "before it is too late".
They want him to honour without precondition the previous agreements for further economic cooperation signed by his liberal predecessors.
But as always in Korean affairs there are plenty of credible observers ready to point the finger in entirely the opposite direction.
Contrasting citizens
They suggest that North Korea has never been comfortable with the mini-experiments in free market capitalism and bourgeois tourism trickling over its borders.
They have meant that 33,000 North Korean workers in the industrial zone have come to know their South Korean bosses.
And they've discovered that those bosses are not ogres or imperialist lap-dog stooges, but intelligent fellow Koreans with a standard of living they can't even dream of.
The North Korean citizens of Kaesong, a city without a private car in sight, witness the well-dressed visiting South Koreans in air conditioned coaches.
"At some point North Korea will face a tipping point and its elites will realise that it has failed," says Peter Beck, a professor at American University in Washington who specialises in Korean affairs.
"Engagement reinforces this fact."
So, the theory goes, North Korea is simply using the policies of new conservative government in Seoul as an excuse to disengage.
But perhaps there isn't really a crisis at all.
North Korea could simply be playing diplomatic hard-ball as usual, driving a wedge between allies by isolating South Korea while simultaneously trying to get closer to Washington as President-elect Barack Obama prepares for office.
The increasingly chilly relations, according to this explanation, are simply about calculated advantage, and could thaw again as quickly as they freeze.
As always with North Korea there is much speculation and very little hard fact.
Business uncertainty
Optimists point out that the new border restrictions stop short of a complete closure of the Kaesong industrial zone - at least for now.
The only thing that can be said for sure is that the uncertainty cannot be good for the nearly 90 South Korean companies that have set up business there.
And whatever its motivations, North Korea's recent actions have highlighted the dangers of too starry-eyed an approach to cross-border engagement.
In a recent article in the Korea Times, journalist and author Michael Breen raises the issue of political risk, given that investors, tourists and Southern politicians alike are subject to such unpredictability.
"You would think that only a raving lunatic would risk wealth and reputation dealing with North Korea," he writes.
"But it is surprising how many smart and well-meaning people get seduced into parting with them."
Monday, November 17, 2008
A letter from one of my Chinese students:
Daniel, Greeting!
I really want to send you a letter. Actually my high school was set up by Chinese-American, there are so many American teachers and friends there. At that time, my English was good and I got a good long touch with them. We played football, basketball and volleyball...On Christmas Day we had a very exciting time together! With the time passed I went to another school, I dislike my new English teacher, from that time on, I gave up my English.
At present, I have been stayed in Korea for 4 years. When I want to speak English, in my frst thinking It's Korean. Wow,lol. I really want to have some interesting talking with you but I did not do that because of my bad English like now. When I met you, you look so kind maybe both of us like basketball. Also we are foreigners in Korea, haha, right? haha! Thank you. Because of you I got back my self-confidence. I found the power. You know the happiest thing in the world is struggle for my ideals, I believe I can fly..
And I wil try my best to do that. Wish you happiness I hope we have a good time and a free talking next time . Play basketball together!
Thank you! My buddy
I really want to send you a letter. Actually my high school was set up by Chinese-American, there are so many American teachers and friends there. At that time, my English was good and I got a good long touch with them. We played football, basketball and volleyball...On Christmas Day we had a very exciting time together! With the time passed I went to another school, I dislike my new English teacher, from that time on, I gave up my English.
At present, I have been stayed in Korea for 4 years. When I want to speak English, in my frst thinking It's Korean. Wow,lol. I really want to have some interesting talking with you but I did not do that because of my bad English like now. When I met you, you look so kind maybe both of us like basketball. Also we are foreigners in Korea, haha, right? haha! Thank you. Because of you I got back my self-confidence. I found the power. You know the happiest thing in the world is struggle for my ideals, I believe I can fly..
And I wil try my best to do that. Wish you happiness I hope we have a good time and a free talking next time . Play basketball together!
Thank you! My buddy
Sunday, October 19, 2008
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Loving the Game
I usually avoid inflating my ego too much with what the students say. Korean students are abnormally positive when assessing their teachers. But today, they really surprised me.
It was Final Exam day and the students were turning in their final essays. A talkative girl nicknamed 'Grandma' handed me her test. When I asked about her HW, she said, "there's a letter on the test." It said, "teacher, honestly, I'm not in this class. I passed the speaking test, so I don't need this class. I like your teaching, so I keep coming. Thanks for my favorite class."
As the day went on, I realized many students throughout this semester had passed the exemption test and should be enjoying their well-earned and much needed free-time. Instead, they continued to attend my class, even when we had difficult and stressful (for most) speaking presentations, they did the work knowing it had no bearings on their academic life here at PNU. That's the kind of compliment I can't ignore! I was so grateful and I invited each one of them out for lunch to have a chance at an actual 'practical' conversation in English. I'd do more if I had more free time.
This made me ask myself, "would I do the same in their situation?" Immediately, I think 'no' because I surely wasn't one of those 'above and beyond' - type students. Then I remembered the year after graduation. I had a college degree, which used to mean something, but I was delivering pizzas for Dominos. It was hard to hold my head up high. So, although graduated and not enrolled for classes, I started attending some art classes with my friend Lindsey. I asked the teacher if it was alright if I just came to class and didn't do the work, and they never had a problem with it. Did my request inflate their egos as my students did mine? I doubt it, they'd been in the game too long. 'Yes' I suppose I would if it was a class that meant something to me.
Thinking back to college, I remembered my Spanish teacher, Senior Gomez, very clearly. He was old, looked like he had a hard time waking up and dressing himself in the morning. He was a real Spaniard, very accustomed to a more relaxed style of life, drinking wine and talking culture. I recall him spending a large part of the lecture just ridiculing America's lack of taste and dishonest politics. Beyond that, he'd hit on all the girls in a cute, old-man kind of way, not perverted in the least. Although I can't say my Spanish improved much in the class, I still remember this man very fondly, and it's because he was in the moment. His lesson wasn't just regurgitated material he'd been spitting for years, he was with us, REALLY talking to us. That was unique in my college experience.
Of course I want my students to improve their English ability. But, looking in the rear-view mirror, I'd like them to remember me as a teacher who wasn't so fixated on a plan, that he forgot to look at them and think about their lives. I know they're busy, I know they could use the free-time and I fully appreciate those who attend my class not because they have to, but because they want to.
Sunday, October 12, 2008
Update Pics
This is a taste of what's going on with my life these days. I went to an International festival yesterday and met many old friends, students. You can see me surrounded by Indonesia. It was a strange feeling because, as I walked around all the countries' respective booths, I realized how many international friends I have. The US is the 'melting pot' but I mainly interacted with other WASPS back home and it wasn't until here that I was forced, or able to, meet folks from all over the world.
Also you'll see pictures from our CD release party a couple weeks ago. We played a big block party that night. The following weekend, I went to my old Korean stomping ground, Daejeon, and was happy to see the CD sell-out. We're now trying to make our setlist tighter (it's difficult to present original music in Korea) and we're preparing for some upcoming concerts.
Wednesday, September 03, 2008
When Korea becomes Asia...
Sometimes this country actually does feel like Asia. I have an ex-student named Amy. She's extremely sweet, and had? a big crush on me. I always felt there was something different about her. Tonight I realized, it's because, unlike most Koreans my age, she hasn't forgot about her ancient traditions. I was put in my un-spiritual westerner place tonight, and it felt good, awkward, but enlightening as well. I still don't know what I did, but the story goes as follows....
[11:02:30 PM] daniel.panozzo says: i just got done with a strange Korean experience[11:02:34 PM]
Amanda Schweitzer says: oh?[11:03:02 PM]
daniel.panozzo says: my ex student, Amy, invited me to a "traditional ceremony, wear socks"
[11:03:04 PM]
Amanda Schweitzer says: did you finally get a scrub at the sauna?[11:03:05 PM]
daniel.panozzo says: by text message[11:03:08 PM]
daniel.panozzo says: that's all I knew[11:03:13 PM]
Amanda Schweitzer says: uh oh[11:03:29 PM]
daniel.panozzo says: then she led me up many stairs to this sollemn 'study house' type place[11:03:36 PM
] Amanda Schweitzer says: amy is the one from coffee at the beach?[11:03:48 PM]
daniel.panozzo says: her English isn't that good, so despite my questions, she couldn't explain what was happening[11:03:49 PM]
daniel.panozzo says: yup[11:03:58 PM]
Amanda Schweitzer says: ok -- i'm with ya[11:04:18 PM]
daniel.panozzo says: there were about 10 women in the place, all studying something, or preparing scrolls, or fruit- they looked really busy[11:04:28 PM]
daniel.panozzo says: then we went to a back room, with a table of fruit[11:04:33 PM]
daniel.panozzo says: Chuseok style[11:04:38 PM]
Amanda Schweitzer says: ok[11:04:40 PM]
daniel.panozzo says: Amy came in with another women, both n Hanboks[11:04:48 PM]
daniel.panozzo says: then another dude stood by me against the wall[11:04:54 PM]
daniel.panozzo says: I thought she was tricking me into marrying her[11:05:05 PM]
Amanda Schweitzer says: i was thinking that or a funeral[11:05:40 PM]
daniel.panozzo says: yeah, they lit candles[11:05:49 PM]
Amanda Schweitzer says: and you said i do?[11:05:53 PM]
daniel.panozzo says: and started doing buddhist monk-ish chants[11:06:06 PM]
daniel.panozzo says: I just tried not to look like Mr. Ignorant American[11:06:15 PM]
daniel.panozzo says: it was really sollemn[11:06:22 PM]
daniel.panozzo says: I had no idea what I was supposed to do[11:06:35 PM]
Amanda Schweitzer says: uh huh[11:06:41 PM]
daniel.panozzo says: there were all kinds of rituals, and, in between each, we would do about 45 full bows[11:06:52 PM]
Amanda Schweitzer says: wow[11:06:58 PM]
daniel.panozzo says: I was sweating balls and thanking Amy (in my head) for helping me work off my American gut[11:07:19 PM]
daniel.panozzo says: then we crouched to the floor, face practically on it, and I felt the blood
rushing[11:07:25 PM]
daniel.panozzo says: that went on for a long time[11:07:37 PM]
daniel.panozzo says: I could tell I was praying, but I wasn't sure what I was supposed to pray for[11:07:49 PM]
daniel.panozzo says: so I improvised (a good Bulls season)[11:07:56 PM]
Amanda Schweitzer says: :)[11:08:02 PM]
daniel.panozzo says: then they lit a scroll on fire and handed it to me[11:08:09 PM]
daniel.panozzo says: and I prayed that I didn't burn this building down[11:08:12 PM]
daniel.panozzo says: really strange now[11:08:12 PM]
Amanda Schweitzer says: lol[11:08:26 PM]
daniel.panozzo says: all the while, we're chanting something about the four elements of life[11:08:44 PM]
daniel.panozzo says: finally it ended, and good thing cuz my knees were about to give out[11:09:10 PM]
daniel.panozzo says: and we ate the fruit while an older women explained in above-my-head Korean the ceremony to the other participant[11:09:28 PM]
daniel.panozzo says: and they told me to be careful not to step on the door frame when passing into a room[11:09:33 PM]
Amanda Schweitzer says: the other guy was waygook?[11:09:37 PM]
daniel.panozzo says: I thanked all the women and left[11:09:43 PM]
daniel.panozzo says: nope, super serious Korean[11:09:46 PM]
Amanda Schweitzer says: hmmm[11:09:50 PM]
daniel.panozzo says: he could bow like nobody's business[11:09:52 PM]
Amanda Schweitzer says: lol
[11:02:30 PM] daniel.panozzo says: i just got done with a strange Korean experience[11:02:34 PM]
Amanda Schweitzer says: oh?[11:03:02 PM]
daniel.panozzo says: my ex student, Amy, invited me to a "traditional ceremony, wear socks"
[11:03:04 PM]
Amanda Schweitzer says: did you finally get a scrub at the sauna?[11:03:05 PM]
daniel.panozzo says: by text message[11:03:08 PM]
daniel.panozzo says: that's all I knew[11:03:13 PM]
Amanda Schweitzer says: uh oh[11:03:29 PM]
daniel.panozzo says: then she led me up many stairs to this sollemn 'study house' type place[11:03:36 PM
] Amanda Schweitzer says: amy is the one from coffee at the beach?[11:03:48 PM]
daniel.panozzo says: her English isn't that good, so despite my questions, she couldn't explain what was happening[11:03:49 PM]
daniel.panozzo says: yup[11:03:58 PM]
Amanda Schweitzer says: ok -- i'm with ya[11:04:18 PM]
daniel.panozzo says: there were about 10 women in the place, all studying something, or preparing scrolls, or fruit- they looked really busy[11:04:28 PM]
daniel.panozzo says: then we went to a back room, with a table of fruit[11:04:33 PM]
daniel.panozzo says: Chuseok style[11:04:38 PM]
Amanda Schweitzer says: ok[11:04:40 PM]
daniel.panozzo says: Amy came in with another women, both n Hanboks[11:04:48 PM]
daniel.panozzo says: then another dude stood by me against the wall[11:04:54 PM]
daniel.panozzo says: I thought she was tricking me into marrying her[11:05:05 PM]
Amanda Schweitzer says: i was thinking that or a funeral[11:05:40 PM]
daniel.panozzo says: yeah, they lit candles[11:05:49 PM]
Amanda Schweitzer says: and you said i do?[11:05:53 PM]
daniel.panozzo says: and started doing buddhist monk-ish chants[11:06:06 PM]
daniel.panozzo says: I just tried not to look like Mr. Ignorant American[11:06:15 PM]
daniel.panozzo says: it was really sollemn[11:06:22 PM]
daniel.panozzo says: I had no idea what I was supposed to do[11:06:35 PM]
Amanda Schweitzer says: uh huh[11:06:41 PM]
daniel.panozzo says: there were all kinds of rituals, and, in between each, we would do about 45 full bows[11:06:52 PM]
Amanda Schweitzer says: wow[11:06:58 PM]
daniel.panozzo says: I was sweating balls and thanking Amy (in my head) for helping me work off my American gut[11:07:19 PM]
daniel.panozzo says: then we crouched to the floor, face practically on it, and I felt the blood
rushing[11:07:25 PM]
daniel.panozzo says: that went on for a long time[11:07:37 PM]
daniel.panozzo says: I could tell I was praying, but I wasn't sure what I was supposed to pray for[11:07:49 PM]
daniel.panozzo says: so I improvised (a good Bulls season)[11:07:56 PM]
Amanda Schweitzer says: :)[11:08:02 PM]
daniel.panozzo says: then they lit a scroll on fire and handed it to me[11:08:09 PM]
daniel.panozzo says: and I prayed that I didn't burn this building down[11:08:12 PM]
daniel.panozzo says: really strange now[11:08:12 PM]
Amanda Schweitzer says: lol[11:08:26 PM]
daniel.panozzo says: all the while, we're chanting something about the four elements of life[11:08:44 PM]
daniel.panozzo says: finally it ended, and good thing cuz my knees were about to give out[11:09:10 PM]
daniel.panozzo says: and we ate the fruit while an older women explained in above-my-head Korean the ceremony to the other participant[11:09:28 PM]
daniel.panozzo says: and they told me to be careful not to step on the door frame when passing into a room[11:09:33 PM]
Amanda Schweitzer says: the other guy was waygook?[11:09:37 PM]
daniel.panozzo says: I thanked all the women and left[11:09:43 PM]
daniel.panozzo says: nope, super serious Korean[11:09:46 PM]
Amanda Schweitzer says: hmmm[11:09:50 PM]
daniel.panozzo says: he could bow like nobody's business[11:09:52 PM]
Amanda Schweitzer says: lol
Monday, September 01, 2008
Migook in the 08
With a perpetually full belly, a lifetime's worth of memories of good friends, I left America's awe-inspiring blue skies and green landscapes behind. I'm back under the grey midst, subconciously sweating as the dampness rises and the sewer-rats hide. It's crowded, busy; it's the first day of a new semester.
I watch the students pass and wonder how many are premiering a new outfit, bought just for this occasion. Hell, if I had a girl these days, I'm sure I would've got some new slacks, ties and shirts. On my own, the chaos of Korea's department stores is too daunting.
This is the start of my 4th semester here at the Uni. As I said to my co-worker, ya gotta improve the Big Show each and every time. The rookie's eager passion to impress is gone but I have a cool and resolve now that I believe makes me a more effective teacher. By now, I've taught these lessons over 40 times. It's hard not to put it on auto-pilot and start quoting myself. For this reason, I'll be in the office today re-working my worksheets, re-wording my essay topics, and re-thinking my stradegies. Gotta elevate the Big Show!
Outside of the school:
Korean food still blows my mind. The streets are alive as ever. Anyone care to come test my praise?
I'm watching Spanish TV's presentation of the Gold Medal game. Boy, they really thought they had a chance. Silencio says Kobe!
I drafted Kyle Orton in my fantasy draft yesterday. Can't help but play with my heart.
If you look closely, you'll see my brother caught in a picture. This shot only happens once in a lifetime. Good job Stolly!
That's it for now. Annyeong in your well-fed faces!
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