Taekwondo is still a big part of my weekly routine, and I'm so glad that I am still doing it. My friend Keenan and I usually go at the same time, but with our increasingly busy schedules (he goes to another gym, I have Korean class and other obligations) we sometimes go at separate times. Our normal time is 9 PM on Mondays, Wednesdays and/or Fridays. My new (intermediate level) Korean language class is on Fridays from 7-9 PM, and I need a little more flexibility in my schedule (for teachers dinners, errands, etc.). Because of this I found out that I can go at 7:30 PM on Tuesdays and Thursdays, which is before band practice and open mic respectively.
Here are several of my 3rd and 4th graders.
The 7:30 time slot has a lot of my current 5th graders,several younger students, and several that are too young to my students yet. This is fun and interesting, but I also really enjoy going with Keenan and the middle school students too, so I am getting to do both at my convenience.
A couple 5th graders ready for battle!
Here are a couple of very young students, and they are just cute as heck.
I am having a bit of a break from TKD though after last night (I went Monday/Wednesday this week), because next week the studio is closed Monday-Wednesday for the Chuseok holiday. My Dad will be in town (he arrives Saturday!!), and we will be too busy Thursday/Friday that week. Master Lee was nice enough to send a couple of cool little statues (of a young TKD student) home with me as gifts to my parents. Because of that my parents are reciprocating and we will stop by on Thursday for that deal, but then we have dinner plans, and other options (Open Mic or the World Music Festival), so I won't be training next week.
3rd graders; "Tom" at the forefront.
I am getting excited for my next step in the TKD world, which will be a sparring competition/tournament. I don't have a lot of information on it, or an exact date yet, but I will probably be competing within the next month or two. Master Lee has had a lot more sparring sessions since I have achieved my black belt, so I know he is preparing me for the real deal. I don't feel like I've gotten A LOT of training for sparring in particular, but now that I have mastered most of the kicks, and since I have a background in wrestling, I feel pretty confident out there.
Here are some 5th graders sparring. I sparred with a few of them, but it is much better practice for me with the middle schoolers. These students are still a little to young for me to be going 100% against them (though I guess it does feel good to win every time, lol)
As my friend Penelope so elegantly put it, I am "dripping with padded children," hahaha
I have been having many interesting discussions with my co-teacher and friends about the recent events occurring in Eastern Asia. There is tension between South Korea and Japan over Dokdo Island (http://www.dokdo-takeshima.com/), there is tension between Japan and Russia regarding the island of Sakhalin (http://www.qsl.net/ah6hy/occupied.html), and there is tension between Japan and China over the Senkaku (or Diaoyu) Islands (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Senkaku_Islands). I see a little bit of a theme here...
Now the Japanese-Russian conflict seems to be much less of an issue right now. The conflict over Dokdo Island (Korea-Japan) is not very explosive at this time, though I have seen several Koreans get very worked up discussing this one. The one conflict that has me a little nervous right now is the one between China and Japan. Not only do they have tension over this island business, but this week is also the 81st anniversary of Japan's invasion, and eventual occupation, of China.
This link you MUST CHECK OUT. It shows many photos of the very intense Anti-Japanese Protests in China : http://imgur.com/a/Y7oIp
Now what's so difficult for me right now is deciding what is credible information (other than photos like seen in the link above). There are buried facts and stories, along with tremendous bias in regards to these relations. I am lucky to have a well informed (and ideologically aligned) co-teacher, that discusses these current events, along with the historical backgrounds behind them all. But I can be certain that I'd be hearing a slightly (or completely) different version of each story if I was in Japan or China right now. I like being informed about these things, but I need to find the time to do some research of my own to have some perspective on the things I am learning.
I have read through a few articles now, and some time has passed (2 days since I wrote the above portion of this post). I'm pretty sure things are cooling down, however there has been quite a bit of "saber rattling" as I've heard it called. Both sides are shaking their fists at each other, but it is unlikely that a real conflict will come about. Here is a brief article to help explain the relations as they are right now if you are interested in this topic:
There is also a bit of tension between North and South Korea right now, but pretty minor stuff. I guess there were a couple of recent presidents here in South Korea that had helped improve relations between the two nations. The Korean people still identify as one people, and most would like to see the two joined again some day. There are families that had been split apart, and some citizens living in North Korea are in 3rd world conditions and starving. According to my co-teacher, when relations were improving a few things happened. Families were allowed to visit each other, South Koreans (and other foreign nations) were beginning to invest in factories in North Korea, and the South Korean government gave the citizens up north food and monetary aid (this had been happening for long time actually). The current president that is finishing his term has done a lot to ruin this improving relationship. He cut off the aid, calling North Korea their enemy, and the factories were abandoned. Some small mishaps between the two Koreas have caused a heightened tension, and foreign nations are afraid to invest in North Korea any more. I don't think anything serious will happen between the two nations, but it is too bad that the "sunshine diplomacy" has come to an end.
There is quite a lot happening over here, but luckily I still feel safe in my little industrial city of Ulsan. Another interesting (crazy) thing that happened over here is a couple of typhoons have come across the Koreas. One came when I was back home in Ohio, and another came last week. Typhoons are basically hurricanes, and can cause a lot of damage. Last Monday the students stayed home, and many of my friends that are teachers either stayed home or went home early. I still had to come in to school, but it was really windy and rainy. I am happy to say there was not a lot of damage in Ulsan (other than a tree or two down), but it was a little intense considering Typhoon Sanba was my first typhoon experience!
As you can see, it started slowing down as it got over land.
This post was also written during my trip back to Korea. Unfortunately I didn't get to take too many pictures of my awesome trip home, but my friends and family took a few, so I"ll share those :)
My trip started quite interestingly when I was informed that my flight itinerary had changed. I checked my email and learned that my flight departing from Busan was no longer at 7:20 A.M., but at 11:05 A.M. Well that's good, but then I noticed that my flight time and layovers no longer totaled a lapsed time of 24 hours, but 32 hours, 17 minutes.. woah! Not only does this inconvenience me (with 3 five hour layovers), but it inconvenienced my parents, since they were the ones picking me up from Cleveland Hopkins Airport. Instead of arriving at 6:24 P.M. on Saturday August 25th, I arrived at 6:22 A.M. on Sunday morning. Bummer.
So the flight situation was a 'little' annoying, but I made do and arrived in Cleveland airport right on time Sunday morning. My flights had been smooth and relatively uneventful (a very good thing when it comes to flying). I actually met a really cool Mexican guy that sat next to me on my flight from Incheon (Seoul) to San Francisco. He was traveling for the company that he works for. His job has something to do with programming the big cranes that lift the big shipping containers that you see on ships and trains. It was really interesting talking with him about his 1 week experience in Korea, and about my 1 year experience there. He said that the quality of work and overall work ethic that he witnessed was absolutely amazing in Korea. On the other hand China (which I'm currently flying to for a brief layover) he said was lacking in both of those qualities. That was very interesting to me since China is where we see so many things "made in." I can't jump to conclusions just based on one man's experience there, but it sure makes me think. Maybe they (as a nation) are focusing too much on quantity, and not enough on quality. That is a significant factor for Americans, and for the world in general as we push further into the 21st century.
(photo from internet)
So I arrived, and as many predicted, my mom had herself a good cry. It was really a nice moment. Not just to see how much she actually missed me, but also the amazingness of getting to see her and my dad (the photographer) after a year overseas.
"I love you too, Mom."
After we retrieved my checked suitcase we went to Bob Evans, and there was lots to talk about. The interesting things from that meal were talking to the waitress (reverse culture shock!), eating an American breakfast (sausage biscuits and gravy), and the older woman 1 table over. Apparently she was enjoying our conversation quite a bit! I didn't notice until we got up to go and my mom said "bye, have a nice day." I was like "...did you know her?" Mom told me that she had been smiling and nodding to her since shoe couldn't help over hear my stories of travel throughout the meal. I thought that was so cool, and I soon found out that EVERYONE is interested as soon as they hear me say "yeah, I lived in Korea for a year." I got to talk about my travels quite a bit on this trip (which I was happy to do).
Here is a great picture of my Mom, Dad and I in our backyard.
When I first got home I remembered all of the little (and big) things that I had left behind in my old bedroom. I guess I was expecting to come back to an empty room for some reason, but there were all kinds of memories coming back to me when I walked in.
The first few days were really nice because I spent them (almost exclusively) with my parents and other family members. We had some real quality time talking, joking, and just having fun around each other. I was able to see both my grandma Jean Manary and grandma Lois Ehrman that first Sunday back, and a few more times each after that. Monday my Grama Manary and my Uncle Brian treated me out to lunch. Apparently 3-4 places in Painesville are closed for lunch on Mondays, so we finally found one open; a great place called Silvestro's. We had a very nice meal (I believe I had a monster sized burger and ate every last bit). THEN grama told me that she wants to come visit me in Korea! It isn't all set and planned yet, but it looks like she will probably come for a visit in the Spring time :D
This is a picture of my Dad and Grama Manary. It is actually of our Labor Day party a week later.
Here is Uncle Bryan (from the next week as well). I showed some of these pictures to my students when I got back, and they all LOVED this one, haha
That evening I went out with my dad and his friends. That usually consists of going to a sports bar to eat wings and talk sports or politics, so that was nice. I definitely was still in an adjusting phase though, on how Americans discuss sports and politics.. slightly more direct than in Korea.
Tuesday my parents both took off work so that we could spend the day together. I made some bomblets (bomb-omelets) for my dad and I, and got to be a little bit lazy. Then we went to the Rock N' Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, which was just amazing. I have been meaning to go for about a decade, and since I waited until now to go made it all the better (because I have more of an appreciation for music now than ever before). It was really just so cool. We spent a lot of time on the first floor checking out the history of Blues, Rock 'N Roll, etc. Also on this floor (the biggest floor because the building is in the shape of a pyramid) were countless rock 'artifacts,' from Jimi Hendrex's clothing and guitars, to Elvis Presley's old car. It was amazing, and I could spend days in there reading about each item they have.
We went through the upper floors a bit quicker because the museum was going to close at 6, and we wanted to make it to the top (featured) exhibit for the Grateful Dead. The Dead exhibit was definitely cool, but it was a bit smaller than I expected. Either way I learned a ton, and had a great time. We actually spent a good amount of time in the gift shop before we left (it was open until 7), and that was just as cool as the museum! I did get a few small things as souvenirs, some guitar pics, an awesome t-shirt and a great book called: "Guitar, the Celebration of Pure Mojo," by David Schiller. I'm reading it on my journey back to S.K., and it talks all about the history of guitar, different kinds of guitars, and a few other interesting topics (haven't gotten that far yet).
Coventry. (Photo from internet.)
After that we went to a street called Coventry. Coventry is a really cool place to be, because they have all kinds of restaurants and shops and whatnot. There are a lot of Asian cuisine restaurants there (Japanese, Thai, Mongolian to name a few), but I wanted American food, haha. So we went to a kind of sports bar and grille that was there called Panini's. That was great, but we skipped the stores and headed back to Painesville. We had to stop by our house, pick up my grama Ehrman, then head straight out to Hooley House where I used to go for open mic last summer. I got there and saw so many old friends and had a great time. My mom actually took a video of a song I did that I will share. I started with an original song that I wrote called "Da Riva," and people seemed to like that (you can hear my mom referring to it at the beginning of the video. The 2nd song was the one in the video, and it was an original written by Tom from the band. I actually posted the band version a while back, and this is my tribute version since Tom has left Korea and is heading to Spain.
The third song I did was a cover of Dan Gable's "Anna Is A Stool Pigeon" using a harmonica. I learned this for 'Stache Potatoes, but I had never sang it before. Because of that I pretty much expected to forget the words, and I did, haha. Only the 2nd verse, but the rest of it went well. It was a great time, and then I got to watch my friends play. My parents and grama left after I performed, but I hung around and caught a ride home with my buddy Nick Zuber (who hosts open mic, and is a bit of a local celebrity) because he lives right around the corner from my parents in Paineville. Nick is a great musician, and just one of the nicest guys I know.
The next day, Wednesday, I went to Cedar Point with my brother and some friends. That was so cool because Cedar Point, if you don't know (http://www.cedarpoint.com/) is one of the top amusement parks in the world. It was so much fun, and it worked out because I got a ride out to my college town of Toledo from there. A good buddy of mine Nick Streeter came out with his friend Ryan, and I went back to Toledo with them around 8-9 O' clock. We went out for a little bit, then a friend of Nick's offered us a place to stay which was perfect (Nick lives in Michigan, and his friend lives on UT's campus). Trips like this are really more affordable/doable if you can "couch surf," as opposed to getting a hotel every night.
The next day Nick did me another great favor by taking me about 30 minutes down I-75 to Bowling Green. He dropped me off at my good friend Ashley Gore's house (Ashley # 2), who lives down there with her boyfriend. She was my neighbor in college, and we became really great friends. One of the things we always did was get a $5.00 Hot and Ready pizza from Little Cesars, accompanied of course by ranch and Frank's Red Hot sauce. I actually introduced her to Frank's, so it has become tradition. We enjoyed that, hung out catching up, and I played her boyfriend's guitar a bit. Then my other really good Ashley friend (Ashley Mielcarek/Ashley # 3) came over and hung out with us as well. Ashley # 3 was also one of my better friends from college; actually such good friends that we call each other "bestie," yes still to this day.
So we all hung out and caught up, then we went to Ashley #3's friend Tabitha's house for a bit. Her and her boyfriend were really cool to talk to, and then we went to the main event. This club called the "Clazel" hosts a Dubstep/Drum & Bass event called Konkrete Jungle, and this was its 2 year anniversary. It was pretty awesome, and we danced a ton. By 1 PM (relatively early for this event) I was really exhausted , so Ashley # 3 took me to Ashley # 2's house (she'd left around 12 PM) where I showered up and had a spare bed to sleep in. So far so good!
The next day we walked (or ran) her dog while having a bike ride. Then she gave me a ride back up to Toledo to my good friend Kate Rajski's house. (I did actually have guy friends in college, but it seems they all moved away! haha) So Kate and I walked around my Alma Mater, the University of Toledo's campus. That was very nostalgic, even though I graduated a mere 16 months ago. Then we went and got some great ice cream at a local mom and pop ice cream stand in the suburb of Slyvania. After that we went to her and her boyfriend's friend's house and hung out a bit. One of the guys I met there was really interesting because he had traveled all over the place with the army. We traded our stories, and I think it was very interesting for both of us. After that we went to a local bar for an event that I had coordinated on Facebook, and had a great time catching up with some really good old friends (and a couple new ones).
Here is our group (minus the photographer Dave) at a local pub called Jo-Jo's. We didn't have a very late night, but definitely had fun catching up with these old (and new) friends! Ashley # 3 is on the left (short hair) and Kate is furthest to the right.
This time I was able to crash on Kate's couch, and then got a ride to the downtown Greyhound bus terminal at 7:30 AM.
A BIG thanks again to Kate, Nick, Nick's friend, and both of the Ashley's for all of the help and hospitality!! I hope that these are the kinds of friends I am making in Korea, so that I can do this kind of traveling in the future, but all over the world! Also a lot of my friends know they always are welcome on my couch.
At this point I was able to get a bus back to Cleveland which took about 2 hours. My brother made it out to pick me up which was great, then we went to Coventry for lunch. We actually went to one of my favorite restaurants: Mongolian BBQ. It's such a cool place, and it's actually where I learned to use chopsticks back in 12th grade! You pick out your meats, vegis and a sauce (you can make your own), and they cook it on a big round grille using sword like utensils. Normally it is quite the show with flipping and tossing things, but we were the only ones getting food prepared at this time, so we chatted with our cook, and he was a real cool guy. He (like almost everyone I talked to in the States) could not get enough of my stories about Korea. (I was happy to tell my stories to everyone during this trip, but I'll admit I was wondering if people would be sick of hearing them by the end!) So we had our food, and then we checked out some of the shops out on Coventry.
We walked into one "head" shop, but didn't spend too much time in there. Next we went to a store called Big Fun, and it was the coolest old toy store I've ever seen! I'd heard of it before, but I'd never gone inside, and it was sweet. I got some great souveneirs and these awesome shades. (think 'Stache Potatoes ;)
Here is me posing with my first guitar, rocking the new shades from Big Fun.
This is Big Fun. Definitely a contender for coolest store, ever. (Photo from internet.)
We hit another cool store with lots of imported things (many from Indonesia), then we left. We thought about going to the Science museum/center, or catching the air show in downtown Cleveland, but we decided to just head back towards home, and hit the beach. We played some catch with an AMERICAN football, and relaxed a bit. Next we went to his girlfriend's house where he does his crazy P90X workouts. We did one of those (actually one from "Insane Asylum"), which was tough, but good.
That was all, so he took me home, and had successfully completed my little backpacking trip for Ohio. Next I was ready for a week in my hometown. The short and sweet version (too late, right?) is I saw a lot of great people from my past, and had a great time. I visited my old co-workers at the City of Painesville Water Distribution Department (hi Sue!), and I got to catch up with them. We also had a great family and friends of the family party on Labor Day. The night before that my friend Mason and his parents had a little get together for me and all of our old friends that would hang there. I did open mic again on Tuesday, and on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday I had little jam sessions with one of my best friends since 7th grade, Justin Yeats. I actually showed him the ropes on guitar a couple years ago, and he has really gotten up to speed, which is awesome. We actually wrote a cool little song together called "Good Mood," which is floating around on my YouTube channel if anyone wants to give it a look/listen.
There were many other little things that happened, definitely too many to mention. Another cool thing is my neighbor Shannon (hey Shannon!) keeps in touch with me via email and the blog, and he lent me his grandfather's acoustic guitar to play while I was home. That was really great, so thanks again Shannon!
All in all I had a great trip, and it was really interesting seeing my adventure as it is from a different perspective. It's too bad that I got re-acclimated with American culture... just in time to go back to Korea, hah.
Also noteworthy: not only is my Father coming to visit (in less than 2 weeks now) and my Grama in the spring, but my good friend Justin might also come next year, my brother wants to come out next summer, and my other friend Julian has shown interest in a visit as well! I think that is so cool that people are willing enough to make that kind of a trip, and I hope they can for the experience.
Finally, on my trip I realized how many people back home are actually tuning into my blog! Thanks to anyone keeping up with this, and I hope you can keep enjoying it! Much love :)
Family photo right before I left. I have the red eyes going, but still a nice picture :)
I had been meaning to update this blog the whole time I was back home visiting (which was amazing), but I was just too busy. I wrote two posts on the way back to Korea, the first being about reverse culture shock:
I am writing this post while 'in transit,' heading back to South Korea. I have just concluded an amazing, at times crazy, and above all eye opening visit home. I want to (and will) discuss lots of stuff from my 2 week vacation in Ohio (never thought I'd say that), but first I have to describe what experiencing reverse culture shock is like!
To start, I could understand people. Living in a foreign country for a year does a couple things to ya (in a short-term kind of way). First you get used to tuning people out. It wasn't until recently that I have reached the level of Korean language skills that I can actually understand some of what people are talking about around me, but I really have to make the effort to listen. When I came back to the States I was often feeling either nosy or annoyed by being able to understand other people's conversations.
I may have given this look to a few people when I first started adjusting..
Another thing you start to do is generally pick up some cultural things, such as bowing and using both hands to give and receive items. It was funny because I visited my mother's work place one day, and one of her co-workers noticed that I bowed to them. I didn't even realize that I had done that until she mentioned it to me later on.
Another small, yet significant one, is that in the Korean language a very common word is "neh." It has several applications and meanings, but it basically means "yes" or "yeah, yeah, I understand." Well that goes a long way in a foreign country, so naturally my two most commonly used words have got to be neh and "ani-yo" (no). Because of that I was walking around for a few days saying "neh" to people. Followed by the realization: oh yeah, that's a fancy old way to say "no"... oops.
I'm pretty sure this look from my Aunt Colleen is just due to a weird timing of the photo, but I know I drew some looks like this saying things like neh (when I clearly meant 'yeah')
There are other subtle things like how people talk, or actually being able to have a conversation with a store clerk (more than a few basic phrases that is), but there was one more big one that stood out to me. The general American attitude that has roots from the economic system of capitalism: strive for perfection, and try to be the best. Depending on where you're at and who you talk to (socially), it varies, but it is definitely there. From the competitive edge of trying to get the last word in, to reminding your buddy that you beat him in a sports bet. Americans are competitive, and like to boast about their success. Of course that is generalizing, and all Americans don't try to come off as arrogant, but I sensed it in the cultural attitude. It is just ingrained in the way we interact.
In Korea, and I think in the other Eastern Asian countries, that is really toned down. There is competitiveness in a sports and between children, but not with most adults (on the surface anyways). There may be competitiveness (maybe why Korea has the #1 school system in the world), but in a much more 'read between the lines' kind of way. It is a respectful, and seemingly passive culture, where you bow to show humility, and you downplay your own talents to remain modest.
I could never really see exactly why many people around the world have accused Americans of being arrogant and/or rude (though I had some guesses) until I returned to America, and witnessed the culture through the eyes of a foreigner. With that being said, I don't think Americans are arrogant. I think that is how we come off to foreigners because of subconscious things we do that are simply cultural norms. Some people in America are arrogant, and many are not. Some people in Korea (and probably every other nation) are arrogant, and many are not. The people that generalize and say that all Americans think that they're the best have not taken the time to understand the culture. Now WITH THAT BEING SAID, I believe it is important to have the same open mindedness when first experiencing another culture, because people are just people, and the culture around them helps determine the 'rules' the play by, or the norms that they follow. I've always tried to have this open mentality to others, but experiencing it in reverse is especially attention grabbing!
The best part about being back in the States (in regards to culture/culture shock/reverse culture shock) is that as soon as I finally felt comfortable and at home.. I left. Now that is a little annoying, but it just reminds me that I'm on this adventure, and that I need to keep expecting these kinds of experiences.
