Pedal Power

First of all, my apologies for the unacceptable absence from blogging. I have so much that I want to write about but it's hard to ever find the time to sit down and write a thoughtful, well-researched blog post, which I would like to include more of.

Upon arriving here, one of the things that I began to miss the most about New York City was my daily cycling regimen. Riding down the Hudson River Greenway gave me a wonderful bike path, some great scenery, and the ability to exercise and commute all at once. This was wonderful, since I never had to motivate myself to exercise, all I had to do was go to work.

Since my apartment is now a five minute walk away from work, bike commuting seems a touch wasteful. However, I have been trying to ramp up my cycling -- more difficult, in that I actually have to convince myself to exercise. My Kia Soul 5-speed is not exactly up to the task of racing or a serious journey (though I plan to do a ride to Gyeongju, 45 miles away, soon). However, Daegu is far from the last place a biker would want to find himself. Cycling is a very common form of transport here. I would estimate that there are a great amount more bikes per capita in Daegu than in New York City, and the most interesting thing about them is that unlike New York, the majority of them are piloted by old folks. Probably one of the most common sights is an ajumma or ajussi (that's an elderly Korean woman or man), cruising around on a rusty, beat-up cruiser with a minimum of 20 pounds of cardboard for recycling lashed to the back. These daredevils are unfazed by anything you put in their path, and you see them zipping in and out of traffic, running red lights, and causing general havoc, their cardboard never budging an inch in its expertly wound bungee.

Finding a road bike here was difficult, probably because the most common two-wheeler is a mountain bike. Daegu is surrounded by mountains, but these bikes spend most of their time on pavement. I didn't quite understand the necessity until I did some further venturing onto the mountain roads. They are usually gravel or pockmarked asphalt, and grooved pavement if you're lucky. These roads are pretty much a nightmare for a road bike. If I had the energy to hang my head in shame as I struggle up a hill in the mountains while grandpa plugs along beside me and eventually overtakes me, I surely would.

Biking in Korea, like New York, comes with ups and downs. The good is:

• Biking is built into the city infrastructure in a planned and often intelligent way, instead of tacked on afterwards with hopes for the best. Daegu has miles and miles of paved bike paths, most of them adjoining the river that nearly circles the city. A few weeks ago, Tom and I circumnavigated the city, a 36 mile ride. It gave me a new appreciation for the city -- as we rode through various interesting neighborhoods and Daegu started to feel more idiosyncratic and less painfully urban -- and an appreciation for urban planning. Coming from the Northeast, it stops me short to see towering office buildings and factories sprawl for miles and miles and then simply stop at an agreed-upon line.

• It's relatively cheap. The bikes themselves are not much different in price than what you would find in The States (although you can come by a used ajumma cruiser for about $45 at many shops in the city), but the parts are cheap, and very often shops will provide "service" in the form of tubes, lights, free tune-ups, and basic repairs.
• A very big majority of the city sidewalks have designated bike lanes. Admittedly, pedestrians will often use them, but the sidewalks are wide and it gives a cyclist the ability to obey pedestrian lights or traffic lights as he chooses. Imagine cycling lanes on the sidewalk in lower Manhattan! There would be riots.
• All the people ride around on fat mountain bike tires, so I'm faster than everyone!

And of course, the bad:

• The inattention or willful ignorance of your fellow riders or pedestrians is appalling. Koreans are often very changeable in their friendliness to strangers. They are happy to help a foreigner who is lost, or wants to practice his Korean, but if you are sharing a sidewalk or a bike path with a group of Koreans, and you are not a member of that group, you may as well not exist. Bells usually mean nothing no matter how loud they are, and people will often pretend you're not there if the alternative is moving over to let someone pass.
• The amount of particulates is more than the human mind can comprehend. Though the bike paths are well kept, planted all around with foliage, and as clean as a Korean thoroughfare of any kind can be, one is still forced from time to time to ride on the roads. The choking dust of automotive pollution is leagues above anything I experienced in New York, and if you don't get caught behind at least 4 buses belching exhaust in one ride, you're probably doing something wrong.
• The traffic is, of course, crazy. If you think taxi drivers in the U.S. are bad, try cycling alongside someone who is talking on their phone, listening to music, tapping away at their GPS, and watching television (yes, the drivers watch television while the drive) all at the same time. It takes a fair bit of learning to get used to the flow of traffic, but luckily, though Korean drivers are crazy, I would say they are not as aggressive as New York drivers, so the odds of a gruesome death on the pavement are a bit lower.

 Of course, the good far outweighs the bad, and I mean to make biking as much of a habit here as it was in New York. Look forward to some posts in the future about cross-country cycle trips!

My Vindication for the Day

From Nick

To. Conner teacher

Teacher ,I am very sorry.
Because, I wasn't leasten your English time
It mean not only now, every day.
Today, I was went small market and ate food...
with my friend Calvin
Next, we walked around Avalon English.
and, I was think 'How about go to Avalon' but fill very sorry to you.
I think you fill angry now
very sorry...I will be a great student.
And, I will do homework every day, and don't speak Korean in your class.
Very sorry to you one more time.


From Calvin

To teacher.
Teacher, I'm very sorry to you. I was very hungry, so I ate ramen in break time. In eating ramen, I know I was late. I was scared. But I thought when I didn't go to class, I'll didn't speak your advice. I'm so sorry. when I was didn't go to class, I walking around the Avalon academy. I'm very sorry.

Damn Hitler...Always Ruining Everything

This post is meant as a response and a brief history lesson. There were a few (only a few, thankfully) people who were shocked or at least given pause when I put this picture up on Facebook last month:

"Why Connor," they said, "what ever were you doing hiking up to a Nazi shrine?" For the uninitiated, the Swastika is actually a millenia-old symbol of Hindu religion. Buddhism, as an outgrowth of Hinduism, adopted the symbol long ago and it is positively everywhere in Korea that has any Buddhist connections. Every temple I have visited has been decorated with several. The Nazi Party adopted the symbol in the early 20th century, and Hitler made it the centerpiece of his Nazi flag. You will notice, though, that he flipped the symbol -- those that you see here will look slightly different because they are facing clockwise, rather than counterclockwise as Westerners are used to seeing.

It is funny the power that even a simple symbol can have on human beings. I like to think of myself as a pretty open-minded person, and the swastikas painted onto the side of temples here look like a perfectly natural part of the architecture to me, as they should. However, with only the color and direction reversed, it is hard not to experience the typical knee-jerk reaction when you see this flag flapping in the wind:

It can hardly be called subliminal, because surely we're all aware of it, but the ability of something as innocuous as two geometric lines to pervade one's consciousness is quite strange.

Herb Hillz

This past weekend a few other teachers and I went to Herb Hillz, a nature-themed amusement park in southern Daegu. The park was quite a mish-mash. There was a petting zoo, an eco-adventure obstacle course, carnival games, and some very strange pop culture displays. For instance, here's the scariest Michael Jackson you've ever seen:

Naturally, we were there for the eco-adventure obstacle course. For only $17, we a ziplining harness, a helmet, and a pass onto one of seven obstacle courses up in the trees of our choosing. After signing the waiver, we had to sit through about 20-30 minutes of instruction. Of course, it was all in Korean, so we had to guess at the gist of it based on gestures and common sense. However, most of it was "here's how to use a carabiner," and "don't jump out of the trees," so it wasn't hard to follow. We were briefly tested to make sure we were paying attention (and to see how good our Korean was, perhaps?), and then it was off to the trees:

And here's a video of Matty ziplining to a graceful stop:

We walked through the fragrant herb garden and checked out the petting zoo (some goats had escaped and were running amok through the rest of the park...you know, to the extent that goats can run amok). There was also a small pool with six inflatable hamster balls, each one with a child inside. They were rolling around and knocking into each other. Naturally we wanted to try, but we were told it was kids only. I call that discrimination.

All in all, it felt very similar to a Western amusement park. The musical selection was a touch odd -- I heard, as three songs in a row, PSY's "Gangnam Style" (obviously), Vivaldi, and then a ridiculous instrumental remix of Donna Summer's "Hot Stuff." They may need to work a little bit on their transitions. One refreshing difference was the lack of litigious overtones. Aside from the waiver, there was just a general agreement that your well-being is in your hands, and that no one would be stupid enough to sue for something that they did to themselves.

One more full week of classes, and then it's the five-day Chuseok holiday. Should be a blast. Until next time!

Anachronism

Today marks the second time this week that I climbed into the Palgongsan Mountain Range to visit Gatbawi, or the Stone Hat Buddha. In spite of an hour and a half bus ride to the trailhead, I went solo on Tuesday and then climbed it again this morning with Matty, another teacher from Avalon. The Palgongsan Range stretches across a number of peaks for dozens of miles north of Daegu, and Gatbawi is located about 2,700 feet up on the easternmost accessible peak.

The pictures may make it look isolated, but it is impossible to go hiking in Korea and not have the company of at least a hundred other people along the way. There are a lot of people, and it is not a large peninsula. I remarked to Matty that the population of Daegu was about half of New York City, so the city itself was a little more breathing room than I was used to. He noted that the population of Daegu is more than all of Scotland combined. Perspective is key, truly.

I was lucky enough to make it there too early in the morning for the real crowds...

These photos may look nice now, but I suspect by the end of my year here, you will all be very tired of looking at pictures of temples.

I honestly don't quite know what my expectations were before coming out here, but nothing could have prepared me for the outright anachronism of mountain temples in Korea. Of course there is electricity and paved roads leading to many of them -- I am not that naive, but it's strange, standing on the summit, when you have this behind you:

And then in front of you, awash in the sound of Buddhist chanting coming from the mountain PA system, next to eight vending machines and a gift shop, are dozens of Korean hikers -- many of them devout Buddhists -- in their brightly colored, top of the line, the best that money can buy hiking clothes, with their cellphones and trekking poles in one hand and their Buddhist prayer beads in another.

In spite of all that, it is still a very peaceful place and an enjoyable hike. Perhaps Buddhists have just become too good at meditating and so the world is self-correcting by throwing as many distractions as possible at them. As I gazed out over the valley, the combination of the electric chanting, the invigorating smell of the mountain air and the pine forest, and the wind on my face brought me not a little bit of peace...and just as I was about to attain nirvana...someone on the temple grounds turned on a leafblower! Oh well, almost had it. Maybe next time. I will certainly be going back often.

The Gatbawi Buddha is allegedly supposed to bring you good health, but as Matty pointed out, it's probably the hour long, 2000 ft ascent that plays the major role in that. I will leave you with a shot of shot of the man himself:

One Month and Some First Impressions

Since today marks one month here in South Korea, I figured I'd finally get it together and start blogging. This will probably be a long one, but suffer through it and I'll try to make them shorter in the future. And as for the dorky blog name, I gave Phil my word that I would keep it, so stay it shall.

I have been teaching for one month at Avalon English Academy in the city of Daegu, South Korea. Daegu is the fourth largest city in Korea, with a population of 2.4 million. That is a fraction of New York City's population, but it sometimes feels even more crowded here. Here's a photo of my new home from the summit of Yongjibong Mountain, to the south.

And here's the view from the roof of my apartment building. Not too shabby. Also, my building, as demanded by the Asian custom of making everything sound cute, is named "Happy Town."

Since Korea is so mountainous, they've learned how to squeeze millions of people into small valleys. They are also quite good at putting things on top of other things. There are huge netted driving ranges many stories high all over the city. Also check out the standard Korean parking tower. Ingenious.

This is no more than a humdrum parking garage to the locals, but every foreign teacher who comes here is amazed by it. Myself included.

Here is a by no means exhaustive list -- which will hopefully be added to with each post -- of some of the good and the bad I have encountered so far.

The Good

• Cool inventions. I've had dozens of encounters already with innovative technology or customs where the reaction is always the same: "That's brilliant! Why don't we do that in the U.S.?" We have the parking towers, of course. Restaurants also have very polite, unobtrusive buzzers on every table to get the server's attention. Fast food places often have these numbered discs which they give you when you order, and then you can go about your business elsewhere, and the disc will light up and buzz when your order is ready.
• The cost of living. Considering my salary here is nearly the same as what I was making in the U.S., and my apartment is free, money goes a long way here. I can get a full dinner at a restaurant (with free refills of all the kimchi and radishes I could want) for about $3.50.
• The internet speed. Oh wow, that's a cool song, I should downlo...OH WAIT IT'S DONE ALREADY. South Korea has the second highest internet speed in the world, behind only Japan. America is in a very sad 14th place. Americans, you can tell yourselves that's why they're so much better at Starcraft than you, you know, if it helps you sleep at night.
• The hiking. Being surrounded by mountains is pretty awesome. Yongjibong, in the first picture is only an hour and a half to the top, on foot, from my door. And of course there's an outdoor gym -- free weights and ellipticals and all -- halfway up the mountain. Why? Because Korea, that's why.

The Bad

• The coffee. I'm not a huge coffee drinker, but I do partake maybe once or twice a week. I am also by no means a coffee snob, but the coffee here is bad. Really bad. Like, monumentally bad. 
• The students. Don't let anyone tell you that Asian students are more respectful than their American counterparts. There are many differences, to be sure, but teenagers are teenagers the world over, it would seem.
• No Pandora. Pandora apparently blocks free access to any IP outside the U.S. Lame!

That's it for now. I promise that my future posts will be more thematic and a less disconnected. I will leave you with PSY's Gangnam Style, which many of you may have already seen since it apparently took off like crazy in the U.S. Here I'm betting it's only another month or two from becoming the official national anthem. I hear it at least six times a day from all sorts of venues. So if you're wondering what living in Korea is like, it's like this. Exactly like this: