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Last day, final betrayal

Koreabridge - Fri, 2012-05-18 15:44

Last day, final betrayal

As far as final impressions go, Korea’s had left a bitter taste in my mouth.

For myself and my girlfriend the past several months had been filled with the morning song from construction workers arbitrarily banging their hammers and shouting directions at large heavy goods vehicles apparently incapable of moving from A to B into the lot next to us.

For my last day it was no different, the routine wake up before six with the sound of construction and the daily shouts from the workers. Battling to attempt sleep, with the commotion outside and my mind beginning to process and organise my thoughts had me at a stalemate.

Laying down I was interrupted by a sound unique to the norm. Originating from my front door had the whole house shake with each strike. I ignored the merciless early morning beating of my residence as the windows shook and groaned with the pounding upon the door. After a while the vibrations and noise ceased and I was left with the ever continuing swan song of building. I took the brief respite as an omen to move from bedroom to kitchen and start the day. I set the kettle to boil and grabbed the only working mobile to send a text to my landlord detailing my departure and the door code for the apartment. With the water now escaping to a shrill I poured it over the last of the coffee and scanned the empty apartment. I ran some hot water for a shower and stripped down as my coffee began to cool.

Without warning the apartment began to shake once more to the pummelling of a small Korean’s fist again at my door. I ignored it thinking they’ll return from whence they came. But as I heard the door code being successfully entered I had to scramble to find some clothes. The fist belonged to my tiny Korean landlord as she sauntered in barely missing me in my birthday suit.

Apparently my text message explaining my itinerary had not been clear enough as she covered her eyes in sin. She soon left apologising, but vowing to return soon. With the possibility of a short term sentence for indecent exposure I showered and clothed in record time.

On her reappearance the landlord wanted nothing more than to go over the utility meters with me. We then said our goodbyes and she was gone. In 20 minutes, with my coffee drunk I had closed the door on my apartment for the last time and was carrying my backpack brimming with my life for the next nine months. A short fifteen minute hike to the subway, two stops then a change to the airport train was all that was required. The journey to the airport was uneventful, exhausting and sweat-filled with the maximum luggage allowance strapped tightly to my back.

Triumphantly though, I arrived at Incheon International Airport with the difficult part behind me I just had to make it to check-in. Grabbing the nearest trolley I removed the 20kg tumour from my back and wheeled it to the desk. Fifty passengers stood between me and unburdening my beast of a bag for the next thirteen hours. I took advantage of the wait and the free Wi-Fi to check e-mails. One immediately caught my eye ‘URGENT’ from my old boss. ‘John, your landlord says she has to pay 400,000w for the wallpaper and she wants you to pay for half’.

The wallpaper in question was covering the majority of the house that had become infested with black furry poisonous mould. The same mould that had my girlfriend sick with violent coughing, endless sleepless nights, headaches not to mention spending over a month’s salary on x-rays, blood tests and all sorts of medication. The same wallpaper that we had to rip down layer by layer finding several unsuccessful attempts at burying the loathsome repulsive dark fungus. The lack of circulation, warmth and humidity all had inadvertently bred a master race of evil spores. After finding these unpleasant treasures all over the house we informed our landlord who failed to understand the severity of the situation and advised us to take care of it ourselves. So we did, with a couple of pairs of rubber gloves, several litres of bleach, nail varnish and duct tape.

The war was fought and won during the Spring of 2011 with Alicia and myself being victorious. It took an incredible amount of time, money and patience but we had succeeded. And now a forgotten undecorated war veteran was being taken advantage of.

The only mobile I had was used to call the landlord who had sided with the enemy. As my voice uninhibitedly exploded down the phone at her audacious behaviour I became aware that the conversation was clearly not private. With an ever increasing amount of eyes the performer in me excelled on the attention and I was now the fist to the traitor’s home, rocking her world. I challenged the deceiver to justify what she had quoted to my manager, her explanation was inadequate for what she was expecting of me. I finished the call feeling redundant, going back to face her would be overwhelming satisfying but for £120 and the cost of a new plane ticket logically it wouldn’t be worth it but that sure as hell would be a story to tell.

I related the battle of mould and the lackadaisical attitude of the Judas to my manager, he empathised and after some back and forth between the two of them he was able to reduce the fee. By that time the check in was over and I had just finished with security and with just under an hour I was ready to wash my hands of the whole affair. I accepted the counter offer thanked my manager and turned off my phone.

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Entrevista: Pronóstico de terremotos by GeoCastAway

Puentes al Mundo - Thu, 2012-05-17 19:33

Hablamos con Álvaro Gonzalez sobre pronóstico de terremotos.

64:05 minutes (29.34 MB)

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The Best Hoedeok in Busan

Koreabridge - Thu, 2012-05-17 01:37

The Best Hoedeok in Busan

I LOVE Korean street food, and I especially love Hoedeok. I mean honestly, what's not to love about fried dough filled with seeds and nuts and sugar and spices that get all melty and gooey? With so much potential deliciousness on the line, it's of the utmost importance that you find a good Hoedeok place.

Just in case you didn't already know where to go- the best Hoedeok in Busan, as told to me by Koreans - so it must be true (also all the other Hoedeok I've had don't compare to these ones, so that also makes it true) is in Nampo-dong at the top of BIFF square. Just look for the place with the line. They also have some pictures on their cart showing how they've been recognized on TV for their awesomeness.

There is almost always a line, but don't let it deter you, it does move pretty fast. Also don't be fooled by the impostors further down the hill closer to the subway, there is a reason they have no line, they just aren't as good. Every person I've taken, since I was taken, agree after they bite down into the warm dough that the line is worth it. You can do it! You can make it through the line and come out the other side with deliciousness. I promise.

There's a map in the 'location' part at the bottom of this post so you can also enjoy the deliciousness.

Trust me, they're worth it.

From Busan with Hunger Pangs and Hoedeok Love,
Jenna

From Busan with Love
Jennaslesinski.blogspot.com

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[Día Mundial del reciclaje Invitación ] by [Lic° William Vegazo Muro]

Puentes al Mundo - Wed, 2012-05-16 18:33

Este 20 de mayo desde las 12:00 Lima Quito Bogotá estaremos conversando acerca del día Mundial del Reciclaje , junto a José Rodriguez, oportunidad en la que presentaremos el Proyecto ganador de un premio en Argentina sobre el Reciclaje del Aceite. Los esperamos

1:13 minutes (1.12 MB)

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Dia del Maestro: Cancion Soy Rebelde en voz de Luisa Cuevas

Puentes al Mundo - Wed, 2012-05-16 14:43

Les presento esta cancion muy especial "Soy Rebelde" en la voz de una de mis alumnos de 5to de primaria desde Los Angeles, California.

2:34 minutes (601.39 KB)

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Transmitierra 2012: Con las Panteras Verdes desde Bankok

Puentes al Mundo - Tue, 2012-05-15 12:43

Cerramos nuestro radio maraton con esta intervencion de la profesora Gabriela Jimenez desde la escuela internacional en Bankok Tailandia. Ella y sus alumnos del club ecologico Panteras Verdes nos comparten las iniciativas ambientales en su colegio y ciudad.

26:46 minutes (6.13 MB)

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Transmitierra 2012: Entrevista Mª Magdalena Galiana Lloret (Mada)

Puentes al Mundo - Mon, 2012-05-14 11:26

En la hora 12 de nuestro radio maratón hacemos contacto con Maria Magdalena Galiana Lloret Autora y Directora de Radio Solidaria Amiga Online. Hablamos sobre aspectos de la Radio Escolar y tambien sobre la ecología en este día de la Tierra.

Escuchen a Radio Solidaria Amiga como parte de TransMiTierra 2012: Entrevista Energia Sostenible Para Todos

34:49 minutes (7.97 MB)

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Modern Design Museum: Hidden Gem in Hongdae

Koreabridge - Mon, 2012-05-14 10:11

Modern Design Museum: Hidden Gem in Hongdae
As I found myself on the edge of Hongdae, further away from the bustling restaurant, cafe and club streets near the station, I wandered up a hill. On my phone was a map I downloaded that had highlights one could find in the area.  If you happen to be looking closely at this map then you could have found me in the B1 section. The main part of Hongdae being in the D2-1 quandrants. I saw something up there that said "Modern Design Museum" and so headed in that direction.  After coming to the end of a steep hill I noticed clearly a building marked with that name, and looked suitable to house the attributes of design.  I walked up to the cafe entrance and saw a sign which read, "Push red button for museum entrance." (Yes, in English.) I must have been in Wonderland as there was no one around, and a red button beckoning me. I pressed, waited a while and proceeded inside the cafe. I was greeted by a young lady who asked for 5,000 Won, and showed me up the stairs to the 1st gallery. The Modern Design Museum is arranged in such a way that you can get a very good idea of how design entered and endured through Korea's modern history. You'll see that the use of design from the beginning was for filial and political use, mostly. But as time went on and Western culture seeped in more, the elements and "things" of design permeated it's way into the culture.
Before entering the actually gallery you are greeted by this small guest table, with stamps and postcards for sale. I left a little something behind for their pleasure.
The gallery space is sectioned off into different time periods but mostly categorized by how design had an affect on Korea.  Section 1: Inception Stage (Introduction of Western modern culture...) 1876-1910 The first area you walk in to is full of small photos, pins and memorabilia that any antique enthusiast would roll over in glee about.

Mostly, you could tell, they were trying to show the earliest form of how Korea was promoted to the world. The use of small flags amongst others represents this, which you can get a sense for in the following slideshow.   The incredibly delicate and historic looking photographs were very illuminating. This is an archive definitely worth checking out in your free time. It gave me a greater sense of this country's history. Section 2: Stationary Stage (Slump of Korean traditional culture and the beginning of the corporate) 1910-1945 The next section featured more commercial type items, like postcards and newspapers. Here you got a feel for the propaganda machine in high gear.

  It was fun to see familiar things yet in an older light, such as these traditional playing cards.
Everything had this real used feel to it and the collection was very well put together, organized on view in such a way you could really grasp the concept. These dolls, scene behind glass and featured in a traditional style book case, were ultimately captivating.
  Section 3: Incubating Stage (Begininning of understanding the design usefulness) 1945 - 1961 / Section 4: Early developing stage 1961 - 1976 / Section 5 Developing Stage: (Systemizing design and development through international sports)1976 - 1988 / Section 6: Take-off stage 1988 - 2000 / Section 7: Maturing stage 2000 ~ One moves on from the second floor to the third where they start to enter a part of Korean history where things move upward economically and the role of design becomes more important towards developing an international image.

Everything from small tin-toys, to rice-cookers and TVs seemed to infiltrate themselves into Korean households. It was actually kind of humorous because I could have sworn I've seen some of these old items at use in some places. But all together I really enjoyed this section because it gave me a broader sense of how Korea developed into it's modern self today. I also started to see how important household appliances are and their significance in the change of a traditional society into a modern one.

From rotary phones to keyboards and wireless phones, it seems the conveniences of today opened themselves up to Korea, just as it had everywhere else.

When you get to the final room, the one with sports paraphernalia (the 2002 World Cup), you come to a full understanding of how design made its way through Korea's tumultuous modern history.

After I left the gallery space and headed back down to the cafe, I couldn't help leaving inspired. I mostly feel an affinity to the early postcards that were on display. Already I have inspiration for some new art works. Let's hope I don't take too long to create it.

I purchased a few postcards, said my goodbye and went on my way. But I am here today to tell you to check out this museum. For several reasons:

It's a hidden gem amongst the glut of cafes, couples and Hongdae crowds.
Since it is a hidden gem you likely will find yourself as the only person viewing the place. I was there on a Sunday afternoon, and was the only one. Otherwise, you won't find yourself fighting for elbow room here.
The cafe looked very inviting.
There is a park nearby, worth exploring.
The history! By golly... this place will give your head a swirl.

Directions:

View 근현대디자인박물관 Modern Design Museum in a larger map

Step 1: Go out exit 8 and face this way:

Step 2: Make your way to the rotary:

Step 3: Go left and head towards a street you can take on the right, that features a Family Mart.

Step 4: Find the road on the right that has the Family Mart.

Step 5: Head down the road, alllll the way to the end. You will pass cafes and boutique clothing shops. Plus the Prince Coffee Shop drama place.

Step 6: Find the crosswalk, cross it. Once on the other side make a little U-turn to find a road that is going uphill.

When you see the following, then you know you are in the right spot!

foreignerjoy.blogspot.com

Profile My Artwork Photography JoyTube ExpatAbundance

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Facebook Groups related to Korea (Updated)

Koreabridge - Mon, 2012-05-14 02:11

Facebook groups related to Korea
If you have any additions to make, please comment below with the name and URL of the group.
Nationwide Busan Daegu Daejeon Gwangju
Incheon Jeju Seoul Ulsan Other Areas

Nationwide

Busan

Daegu

Daejeon

Gwangju

Incheon

Jeju

Seoul

Ulsan

Other Areas

Facebook Groups related to Korea (Updated)

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Aulas Innovadoras: Elaboracion de Material Multimedia con Nicky Lagunes

Puentes al Mundo - Sun, 2012-05-13 22:03

Les presentamos nuestro programa piloto de Aulas Innovadoras iniciativa de Encuentro Tijuana
Conexión para los docentes y sus inquietudes

Nicandra Lagunes Castillo (Nicky) desde Xalapa, Veracruz, México.
La maestra Nicky Lagunes estudió la Licenciatura en Educación Primaria y la Maestría en Educación, y obtuvo la Certificación en la Norma técnica de competencia laboral del Estado de Veracruz: Alfabetización Digital, (código: NVTIC007). Actualmente cursa la especialidad en competencias de información y tecnología aplicadas en educación. Es integrante del Comité Técnico que elaboró la Norma Técnica de Competencias Laboral del Estado de Veracruz.
Es docente de posgrados y formación continua y se desempeña en el área de diseño instruccional y de contenidos de cursos, talleres y diplomados presenciales y en línea. Asimismo, ha tenido participación del programa formando formadores. De enero de 2008 a la fecha, es responsable del proyecto uso pedagógico de las TIC de la Dirección de Educación Normal del estado de Veracruz.

Su presentación como parte de Encuentro Tijuana - Conexión para los docentes y sus inquietudes que se llevo acabo el 20 y 21 de abril, 2012.
El uso del Software JClic como apoyo en el aula
Twitter: @nickylag

Los esperamos el segundo domingo de cada mes a las 10 a.m. Mexico D.F. 15 GMT hora universal en los estudios de Aulas Innovadoras en Puentes al Mundo. Un saludo cordial del equipo de Encuentro Tijuana: Ana Cristina Borquez, Daniel Mocencahua, Blanca Parra y en apoyo tecnico Jose Rodriguez.

37:46 minutes (8.69 MB)

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KMK: Lady Gaga Concert Experience

Koreabridge - Sun, 2012-05-13 20:00

KMK: Lady Gaga

On March 28th Lady Gaga descended upon the citizens of Seoul like some intergalactic Madonna searching for her brood of little monsters. Of course the arrival of anything unfamiliar or foreign stirred up the hornets nest of angry ajummas on the lookout for a scapegoat. Lady Gaga took on the sins of every imagined ill afflicting Korean society by bringing her Born This Way concert to the land of the morning calm.

Hordes of “Christians” protested the concert even managing to elicit a ban of fans under the age of eighteen from attending. Railing against Gaga’s supposed “promotion” of pornography and homosexuality don’t these folks have nothing better to do than trod on other people’s freedom of expression and right to exist? If they had actually stuck around an saw Gaga’s concert they would have realized she’s about as racy as a PG-13 movie. I’ve seen more skin at the beaches here in Korea or from a half dozen K-pop acts than on her stage.

Her arrival should have been met with open arms not a fist. She’s an A list act who chose to not only perform in Seoul ( a city some other big names somehow avoid) but to also kick off her world tour. Though part of me wishes she’d started somewhere else before Korea just so the kinks could have been worked out. A few of those mentioned by concert goers include the mass of bodies one had to forge to receive an over 18 wrist band; the horrendous 12 hour wait some endured for the special monster pit section; but besides those two quibbles my one big gripe was actually the venue itself. Olympic Stadium is a monolithic monstrosity of concrete and steel from the eighties. It’s sheer size overwhelmed Lady Gaga. Her whole performance rests upon a backbone of stunning visuals and images that dazzle. For the folks in the sitting sections circling the stadium as well as the people in standing section B she was little more than a firefly buzzing in the distance.

However, if you were one of the lucky ones in standing A or the coveted monsters pit, then you were treated to a spectacle worthy of any sci-fi fantasy epic. She entered on a mechanical “horse” escorted by lithe human bodies, she strutted with a keyboard headpiece with guitars as adornments, she rocked out on an over sized Harley Davidson that somehow she became part of. In other words she put the show in showstopper, but only if you managed to be within 200 feet.

Moral of the story? Buy great seats, stay home and watch the videos or have “creative” friends (hey Joe) who know how to work their way to the main stage.

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Dear Korea #066 - Unintentionally Funny

Koreabridge - Sun, 2012-05-13 15:01

Dear Korea #066 - Unintentionally Funny

Okay readers, let me start off by saying I AM VERY SORRY FOR MY ABSENCE. If you would like to continue reading to find out why, feel free. If not, please enjoy the comic, and I apologize once again for the lack of comics over the past month or so. I hope this one is funny enough to make up for it.

Anyways, before I give my explanation, let me explain the comic. Since I’ve come to Korea, I’ve seen so many random shirts that say the most hilarious things on them. It makes me wonder if people are even aware of what they’re getting into when they purchase and wear said clothes. What makes it even funnier is when you see the children’s clothes with very adult quotes on them. Some of my favorites include:
“I support Desert Storm.”
“Congratulations on not being pregnant!”

Really, I guess it’s not too different from when non-Chinese people get tattoos of Chinese characters on their bodies. When comparing the two situations, I think I’d rather have a silly shirt over something permanent. What are some of the funniest shirts you’ve seen during your time in Korea (or anywhere else)? Please do share!

As promised, here’s a brief explanation of what’s been going on to clear up why I’ve been missing. First off, my computer died in a very horrible way. When you have a comic that is completely done on the computer, that’s not good news. Not having the time to get it fixed right away, I had to wait until someone was able to take it to the service center to get it fixed for me. I ended up losing my hard drive, along with a lot of important stuff I had on it. I am happy to say that they were able to save the older Dear Korea files (meaning that making a book is still possible!), but it’s taken me a long time to recover all of the programs and extra files I needed to actually create the comic. Needless to say, that experience was not fun. Thank goodness for Korea’s great and affordable services!

Second, I started a new, full-time job at an animation company. Great news, right? It’s been a thrill to work at such an amazing company, but the amount of time and work I’ve been putting into it has taken a toll on everything else. Up until recently, I had mostly been working part-time at different jobs while spending most of my time doing freelance at home. As busy as all that kept me, I still had time to work on other projects (such as this comic).

The issue now is that I don’t seem to have nearly as much time to dedicate myself to things outside of work. That being said, I would hate to have to stop doing Dear Korea, especially since this comic has some of the best readers in the world. With that in mind, I am regretful to say that this will now be a bi-weekly comic. It may go back to being updated on a weekly basis if I can manage to find a better way to do things (not having internet at work has made things really difficult), but I’m afraid that I won’t be able to keep up with the old schedule at the moment. I sincerely apologize, and I hope everyone can understand that this was not an easy decision for me. What can I say? I love receiving weekly feedback ♥

Anyways, though it wasn’t as brief as I thought it would be, I hope this all explains my absence, as well as the change in schedule that will be starting from today. Thanks for reading!

Jen Lee's Dear Korea

This is Jen Lee. She likes to draw.
She also likes green tea.

Got any questions, comments, or maybe even some delicious cookies you want to send through the internet? Feel free to contact us at dearkoreacomic at gmail dot com.

You can also leave comments on the comic’s Facebook Page!

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Foreign Women Dating Korean Men: We are not sluts

Koreabridge - Sat, 2012-05-12 07:42

Foreign Women Dating Korean Men: We are not sluts

This is a response to my post, "Foreign Women Dating Korean: Are We Sluts?"where I tried to address the issue brought up on another person's blog about how some foreign women felt when approached by Korean men. The main issue, I feel, was do the actions of foreign woman have an affect on the mindset of Korean men or are Korean men just men? The main idea being that there are several foreign women bloggers who write explicitly about their relationship and adventures with Korean men, and some of the comments they receive. Dating in Korea, is one of the main examples.

I have to admit that for a while there my opinion was that if foreign women open themselves up in a sexual way easily and quickly to Korean men, that the majority of Korean men will think foreign women to be easy sexual partners. I think what mainly drove this opinion was fear that when I faced the Korean dating scene I would not compare to other foreign women, and be disliked. However, I am here today to tell you of my changed opinion and to back it up with experience. I think it is important for foreign women expats to understand that the dating scene in Korea is no different than that in their home country. And that the opinions of Korean men are shaped by their experiences with foreign women, but that in the end they are individuals still making their own choices.

Last September I was thrust back into the single world, after ending a two-year relationship with a Korean guy. Again I found myself heading to the Online dating sites to find someone new, and I what I discovered is that a lot had changed in the two years since my absence. Keep in mind, I do not go to clubs or bars where other foreign women pick up or get picked on by Korean men. So my perspective is solely from the shy-non party-girl perspective.

This time I used several dating sites beyond the usual Korean Cupid, and some social networking Apps. In this case I was able to "meet", through digital means", many Korean men. The ones I ended up meeting in real-life were fewer than those I talked with online. Since I am 30 the age range of men I talked with were from 27 to 35 years old. Through all this I noticed that they had experience talking with foreign women online, and some had more experience meeting foreign women. It depended on which site or App you were using, but there tended to be genuine men looking for genuine experiences. However, there were a group of men who asked typical sexual questions and eventually out right asked for it.

Never once did I feel like these men thought foreign women were sluts, but rather were each individuals looking for a certain something. Whether it were sex, friendship, language exchange or a relationship it was made clear either by their profile or through chat. Never did I get a response like, "But foreign woman want sex, why not you?"

Because of my recent experience of using online dating and meeting a few guys for dates, I can say that Korean men don't see foreign women as sluts. I think, however, that there are a lot of lonely Korean men out there that because of their status and other reasons haven't had success dating Korean women. Therefore, I have found that some Korean men are turning to foreign women because of the "freedom" they feel. It can be easily accounted for that dating between Koreans can be a casual thing, but more often than not it tends to be a serious matter. For example, some Korean men can be rejected simply on their blood type or their height. Whereas, foreign women can be picky, I do believe we tend to lean towards the personality when choosing a partner and not cross-examining everything about the other person.

In the end, I strongly feel that both men and women are free to date whoever and however they please. Certainly, the Korean dating scene is a unique experience and makes living in Korea more dynamic. But one shouldn't be concerned that certain actions of foreign women make Korean men think that all foreign women are the same.

I especially wanted to write this response-post, because my original post has garnered a lot of hits over the months. I wanted to make sure people understood where I stand on this subject today. I hope I have made myself clear and I am open to any thoughts about what I have said. Lastly, I have a new person in my life, but things have just begun. I hope this new relationship lasts so that eventually I can bring up our fun adventures together.

foreignerjoy.blogspot.com

Profile My Artwork Photography JoyTube ExpatAbundance

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Where the Wild Things Are

Koreabridge - Sat, 2012-05-12 06:43

Where the Wild Things Are

I love the book Where the Wild Things Are, I have since I was little. I remember when my Kindergarten teacher read the book to the class, I also remember that I was convinced that it was a book written by her husband since both their last names were Sendak.

To honor and remember the awesomeness that was Maurice Sendak's literary legacy, I decided yesterday's Current Issue class would be a great way to introduce some of Mr. Sendak's Wild Things to some of my Wild Things.

My "Current Issues" class- which is a current events class that usually gets passed up for coloring or random fun time on Friday, was used for a great purpose this week.

My class, along with the other kindergarten classes, spent the afternoon in Orion class for a story and a craft.

First I read them Where the Wild Things Are, although the kids were more interested in the pictures- but they're 4 and 5 and who doesn't love awesome pictures at that age. And really if you're going to go crazy over children's lit pictures, these are some great ones to demand to see up close (again and again).

After the story, I had the supplies ready to make "Wild Thing" masks. I had also made myself a Max crown in case a few of the kids wanted to make those instead. It turns out that EVERYONE wanted to make crowns, so that's what we did. (If you want to make your own 'Wild Thing' Masks, or 'King of the Wild Thing' Crowns for your kiddos or a class full of kiddos- I've put some how-to's and a list of supplies at the bottom of this post.

I didn't expect them to be so popular so I didn't have enough yellow paper for each kid to get two sheets. When dealing with a room of kids ages 4-6 telling them that some kids have to have white crowns instead of yellow because there isn't enough yellow paper is not an acceptable answer- so instead everyone made half yellow, half white crowns! YAY!

Even when things are equal, in Kindergarten you still get those looks, as kindly demonstrated by Allie. I was very thankful that we had so many helping hands with the little ones. I think all the crowns turned out really great.

Some crowns embellished. (My co-worker Anne is right, our friend Johnny always gives the best faces in pictures.)

Where some went the more traditional route (Philip is also famous for giving crazy faces).

Holly got really creative and made two crowns, the one she made out of scraps, and the much more 'abstract' crown which was the remnants taped together.

Holly and the finished product- much more Little Mermaid, then Where the Wild Things Are, but still really awesome and super creative.

Those are some hard working "Wild Things".

So THANK YOU Mr. Sendak, for having a profound impact on my childhood and the childhoods of so many. I'm glad my own 'Wild Things' could meet you and be impacted by you, if even in a small way. You will always be fondly remembered. Thank you for so many wild rumpuses!

For the King of the Wild Things (Maurice Sendak 1928-2012) with Love,
Jenna

How To:

"King of the Wild Things" Crowns:
What you will need:
-2 sheets of paper per child (or inner child- 3 if your inner Wild Thing has a really big head)
-scissors
-glue, tape, or a stapler
-crayons or markers (optional)
-your imagination
-any embellishments you want to add to the tops of your peaks or the brim- feathers, cotton balls, faux fur would all make great additions

Now these crowns are super easy, and there is no wrong way to be a Wild Thing. So you can go the traditional route and cut a zig zag pattern into your paper- I made my peaks intentionally uneven to look more childlike and wild. Or you can cut out triangles and glue them together to form a crown like Holly did.

Then check the fit and secure the crown with a staple, glue, or tape, and go run wild!

"Wild Thing" Masks
What you will need:
-a half a paper plate per child
-crayons or markers
-string or elastic
-scrap paper for horns, beaks, ears, hair/fur, or other Wild parts
-glue to stick on the scrap paper
-any embellishments like faux fur, yarn, cotton to make your masks even more wild.

Mark the back of the paper plate half for each child's eyes and cut out the eye holes (you may need to help with this- I've also found that triangles make for good eye shapes that are easy to cut out). Let your kiddo go to town on decorating the front of the mask using Where the Wild Things Are for inspiration, if needed. Once finished decorating the front and the glue is dried measure how much string or elastic is needed by having the child hold the mask up to their face and wrap the string around the back of their head. You can either then staple the string to the inside of the mask, or punch a small hole on each side of the mask then thread the string through the whole and knot it to hold in place. Put them on and let your wild rumpus start!

Reading the book and doing one of the crafts took my 11 4-6 year olds about 45 minutes (with the help of 5-6 adults). ENJOY!

P.S. While looking at my schools library for their copy of Where the Wild Things Are, I found one of THE best children's books at my school the other day The Big Orange Splot, one of my most favorite books when I was a kid! Way to go individual creativity!! My school is officially a lot cooler now that I know they have this book.

From Busan with Love
Jennaslesinski.blogspot.com

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KAs@Work: Kevin Ost-Vollmers of Land of a Gazillion Adoptees

Koreabridge - Fri, 2012-05-11 22:05

KAs@Work: Kevin Ost-Vollmers of Land of a Gazillion Adoptees

When it comes to online communities for adoptees, Land of a Gazillion Adoptees (LGA) is at the top of the list. LGA is an adoptee-centric blog based out of Minnesota, and at the helm of operations isKevin Ost-Vollmers, LGA’s founder.

No stranger to Korean Beacon readers (see our feature on Minneapolis and St.Paul), Kevin talks with us about LGA’s framework and goals, his upcoming projects, Minnesota’s strong Korean adoptee community, and his thoughts on the changing adoption discourse.

Tell us a little about Land of Gazillion Adoptees. How did it come to be, who makes up the team, and what is LGA’s mission? How is it different from other adoption-related organizations?

I call Slanty of Slant Eye For The Round Eye the Godfather of Land of Gazillion Adoptees (LGA). After encouraging me repeatedly over a four month period to write something for him, Slanty planted another seed: “Dude, you should totally start your own blog.” So, after a short test run on Facebook as a person/entity known as “Land of Gazillion Adoptees,” I launched LGA in June of 2011.

Since launching, the LGA team has grown. The blog has two editors – Shelise Gieske and me. The hope is to add a third editor by the year’s end. Additionally, the blog has six regular contributors; A.J. Bryant (Indian adoptee); Aaron Cunningham (the only nonadoptee); Farnad Darnell (Iranian adoptee); Nisha Grayson (Indian adoptee); Jared Rehberg (Vietnamese adoptee); and P. Teal(Korean adoptee).

How is LGA different from other adoption-related organizations?

Unlike most other adoptee organizations, LGA is a for-profit company, the purpose of which is to offer a wide array of adoption-related products and services with the end goal of:

elevating the impact of adoptee lead organizations, programs, and projects;
elevating the stature of adoptees in the adoption community and in the wider community;
enhancing relationships adoptees have with some of their natural partners, i.e., first/second/third generation immigrant populations and people of color from other communities.

I believe it’s safe to say that LGA has obtained some success. However, I can only take a small amount of credit. LGA, similar to other adoptee organizations, is driven by collaboration. The blog, for example, is a community space we (Shelise, the contributors, and I) build with others, in particular adoptees. The anthology LGA is co-publishing with Vietnamese adoptee Adam Rebholz, of CQT Media & Publishing, will be a book we produce with some outstanding writers. The soon-to-be-launched Watch Adoptee Films (WAF), a subsidiary of LGA, will be a partnership between Jared Rehberg, Bert Ballard, and me.

from top right: Shelise Gieske, Jared Rehberg, and Nisha Grayson

LGA has different media components (blog, podcasts, film projects, etc.). Why did you decide to incorporate all of these elements? Which media tools have been the most effective for LGA’s mission?

Because I have a short attention span? Just kidding…

I’m a huge music guy. One of my all-time favorite Rock Gods is Damon Albarn of Blur, Gorillaz, Rocket Juice & The Moon, etc. He collaborates with so many people! On top of that, he utilizes all types of artistic media, and the results are spot on 99.9% of the time. Seriously, how awesome is “DoYaThing,” a Gorillaz ditty featuring Andre 3000 of Outkast and James Murphy of LCD Sound System?

Believe it or not, Albarn and other artists who thrive on the collaborative/multi-media approach inspire much of what happens at LGA, and the fruits of the approach aren’t so bad. For example, Shelise Gieseke took over half of the blog in January. Since then we have covered a pretty expansive range of topics, talked with all types of adoptees, adoptive parents, first parents, and adoption “establishment” figures. These conversations were blasted out into the world through podcasts, traditional text interviews, written personal narratives, and videos.

As a result, we saw the blog’s viewership reach new levels – minimum of 10,000-25,000 unique visits in March. Not so bad for a “niche” blog, right? Time will tell what media tool(s) work the best for LGA, but right now the combination of different media components to “tell the story” is the name of the game for us.

Visit: www.landofgazillionadoptees.com

You’ve had the privilege of meeting and interviewing many Korean American adoptees. Are there any in particular whose stories stood out the most?

Indeed, I’ve had the great opportunity to talk with a number of Korean American adoptees in the past eleven months. The conversations have all been compelling, and they give me a great deal of pride; I’m really proud to be a Korean adoptee because our community is kicking some major ass.

Some people consider Lee Herrick, whom Jared Rehberg interviewed, as the “Godfather of Adoptee Poetry.” How cool is that?! Tammy Ko Robinson, Tobias Hubinette, Kim Stoker, and Jane Jeong Trenka were all instrumental in bringing forth much needed adoption legislation in South Korea. Major props to them! And you know what’s the icing on the cake? They’ve gotten under the skin of some old timers in the US adoption agency community.

I recently had a heated (and wine/beer infused) conversation with Nancy Fox of Americans for International Aid and Adoption. She said to me, fingers wagging: “They [Tammy, Tobias, Kim, and Jane] have sentenced Korean kids to death in institutions! You have sentenced the Korean kids to death in institutions for supporting them!” This from a person who has been known to treat “radical adoptees” as individuals unworthy of her time. Well, apparently they’re worth her time now. Hehehe! Minnesotan Korean adoptees represent!

Historically, the state that I live in has been considered an “adoption hub” because of agencies like Children’s Home Society & Family Services and Lutheran Social Services of Minnesota. Together, these agencies have placed tens of thousands of adoptees with families. However, these days one would be hard pressed to argue against the notion that Korean adoptees, in collaboration with other adoptees with different backgrounds, set the tone.

If you don’t mind, I’d like to do some name dropping of well known Korean adoptees who just happen to live in the lovely state of Minnesota: Jennifer Kwon Dobbs, JaeRan Kim, Kim Park Nelson, Hei Kyong Kim, Julie Hart, Kari Ruth, Ami Nafzger, Sun Yung Shin, Mayda Miller, Jennifer Arndt-Johns, Kyan Bodden, Lisa Medici, Brooke Newmaster, David Moschkau, Judy Eckerle, Deborah Johnson, Katie Leo, and Sun Mee Chomet.

With all that said, the conversations that stand out are the ones that remind me that a lot of work remains to be done for the adoptee community. It’s sobering to hear Joy Lieberthal, a veteran of adoption, talk about her clients, who are mostly kids and teens. It’s startling to hear Melanie Chung-Sherman, another veteran, talk about adoption disruption cases, i.e., “rehoming,” she sees on a monthly basis. It’s infuriating to be talking about adoptees, such as Russell Green, who are at the risk of becoming deported out of the US because of mistakes made by adoptive parents, adoption agencies, and state and federal governments.

left to right: Lee Herrick, Jane Jeong Trenka, and Kim Stoker

You’re doing a tremendous job at bringing new voices and views to the adoption discourse, as well as highlighting the many accomplishments and projects by the adoptee community. Since you started LGA, do you think adoption narratives have become more visible and included within the “Korean American experience”?

No. Absolutely not. For one, the increase in presence of the Korean adoptee experience within the broader Korean American experience has been going on for quite some time. For another, LGA frequently features adoptees who are not Korean.

With that said, I think LGA has played a small, yet significant role in elevating the voices of Korean adoptees within the “adoption establishment.” For example, in a March LGA podcast, the President and CEO of Joint Council on International Children’s Services, a DC Metro-based organization with influence, went on the record saying he would work with the adoptees (many are Korean) who have been pushing for legislation to end the US practice of deporting international adoptees whose naturalization paperwork were not properly finalized. Since the podcast, the President and CEO of the National Council For Adoption (NCFA) has agreed to offer NCFA’s support for an adoptee lead effort.

McLane Layton, who is widely considered the “architect” of the Child Citizenship Act of 2000, has expressed interest in joining the “coalition” as well. And Adam Pertman of the Evan B. Donaldson Institute, Parents for Ethical Adoption Reform, Ethica, and the Korean Adoptee Adoptive Parent Network (KAAN) have all asked to be kept in the loop.

Interesting mix of individuals/organizations willing to play support to adoptees, right? Would this have happened last year about this time without LGA’s ongoing efforts to elevate the voices of adoptees? Maybe. Maybe not. In the end, what matters most is stopping the deportation of international adoptees once and for all.

You’ve been instrumental with raising funds for KUMFA/Heater, and have been very vocal about the lack of benefits for single mothers in South Korea. How do you think the lack of support for single parents effects adoption rates in South Korea and elsewhere?

The lack of support for single parents plays a pivotal role in adoption rates in South Korea (and beyond). In a recent Facebook thread, Jane Jeong Trenka, who currently lives in SK and works closely with single parent organizations, offered the following: “Probably most Korean single mothers are ready to take care of their own if they are given the encouragement and financial support to do so (as they are at Aeranwon, where I think 80-85% keep their babies). Most are given a snowball’s chance. You try raising a newborn on $44 a month while your breasts are leaking milk.”

The unwillingness of the “progressive” adult adoptee community and the “adoption agency” adoptee community to talk with each other also plays a pivotal role. Because of our size and diversity of thought, the Korean adoptee community is in many ways heavily fragmented. I believe this fact holds us back from accomplishing much more as a group. Nevertheless, it doesn’t have to be this way. Imagine if the Tammy Chus, Tobias Hubinettes, and Jane Jeong Trenkas of the world joined forces with the Kathy Saccos, Melanie Chung-Shermans, and Joy Lieberthals of the world. Damn! Think about what a “supergroup” like that could accomplish with single mother organizations, Korean adoption agencies, and sympathetic members of the South Korean Assembly!

Yes, I know. Total pipedream.

Are you working on any other projects for LGA or another organization?

Yuppers. As I mentioned earlier, LGA is co-publishing an anthology this summer that will focus on the idea of “adoptees as parents.” The list of writers is hot: Bert Ballard, Susan Branco Alvarado, Stephani-Kripa Cooper-Lewter, Lorial Crowder, Astrid Dabbeni, Shannon Gibney, Mark Hagland, JaeRan Kim, Jennifer Lauck, Mary Mason, Robert O’Connor, John Raible, and Sandy White Hawk.

Additionally, as I mentioned earlier, Watch Adoptee Films (WAF), a subsidiary of LGA, will launch mid May. The purpose of WAF is to make adoptee-centric films available to a broad audience. Some films we will be showing are Adopted and Operation Babylift: The Lost Children of Vietnam. We’re in touch with other filmmakers and should have confirmations from them very soon.

Lastly, any advice for someone trying to start a similar endeavor?

Know your five-year plan. Be fearless. Take risks. Laugh at yourself often. Enjoy clean hair.

Land of Gazillion Adoptees
www.landofgazillionadoptees.com
Follow LGA on Facebook
Look out for LGA’s upcoming projects, Watch Adoptee Films and the “Adoptees as Parents” anthology.

Koreanbeacon.com

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7 things I don’t like @ being an Academic

Koreabridge - Fri, 2012-05-11 15:00

7 things I don’t like @ being an Academic

It’s grad school acceptance season, so here are a few thoughts if you are considering the PhD plunge. Try this genre also on the Duck of Minerva, where I also write. Enjoy your last summer to read as you choose, without following a peer reviewer or a syllabus. Such lost bliss…

Generally speaking, yes, I like being an academic. I like ideas and reading. I like bloviating at length. The sun is my enemy, and exercise bores me. I would really like to be a good writer/researcher. Including grad school, I’ve been doing this now for 15 years, so clearly I could have switched. I am committed. But there are at least 7 things I didn’t see back in my 20s when I had romantic ideas that if I got a PhD, I’d be like Aristotle or John Stuart Mill – some great intellectual with real influence on, what a Straussnik once called to me, ‘the Conversation,’ which I took in my heady, pre-game theoretic youth to be this (swoon).

1. It’s lonely.

I didn’t really think about this one at all before going to grad school. In undergraduate and graduate coursework, you are always very busy and meeting lots of people. You live in a dorm or fun, near-campus housing, you have lots of classes, you hit the bars on the weekends, you go to department functions. Girlfriends/boyfriends come and go. So even if you didn’t like 9 of the 10 people you met, you were meeting so many, that you eventually carved out a circle and did fun stuff that kinda looked like the 20-something comedies you see on TV. But once you hit the dissertation, you are suddenly thrown back on your own, and you really re-connect, or try, with your family, because they’re the only ones who’ll put up with your stress. You spend way too much time at home, alone, in a room, staring hopelessly at a computer screen. You don’t really know what you’re doing, and your committee, while filled with good, smart people who are almost certainly your friends, can’t really do this for you, even though you try to push it off on them.

Then, when you get your job, you spend lots of time in your office or your home office, because the publication requirements are intense (or at least, they feel that way, because you still don’t really know what you’re doing). Maybe you do a joint paper, but the collective action problem strikes. Pretty soon, you spend lots of time, alone, with your office door shut. You eat lunch at your desk, and you read at night in your home office after dinner. It’s the only way to keep up (more on that below). Isn’t that a weird sort of existence that seems unhealthy given that ‘man is a social animal’? I remember at a conference once a few years ago, a colleague opened it by saying, ‘we like going to conferences, because we get lonely all day at work by ourselves.’ I’ve always remembered that remark for its sheer honesty. The room erupted in laughter and approval.

Sure I could meet people if I had cool hobbies like mountain climbing or biking, but how many academics do that? That’s…outdoors, and far too healthy. And who has time for that? I need to read 20 book and articles just for my r&r. I gotta spend my weekends reading, blogging, and chewing my fingernails in anxiety over the quality of my work. And the rest of my time goes into family. Sure, I could let myself get sucked into academic service to expand my circle, but how often have you seen academics trying to get out of service and such, in order to get back to their offices to research, alone?

2. It’s made me fat and squirrely.

Part of spending too much time by yourself, is letting yourself go. Groups helps socialize and discipline behavior, so if you’re sitting at home all day reading alone, why not just wear pajamas the whole time? Actually, this is probably worst in grad school when I recall lots of us thickened up because of the dramatic lifestyle change to sitting in a chair reading all day. If you’re not careful, it’s easy to fester, to become like Gollum living in your dissertation cave, obsessing over the precious as your nails get longer. You don’t shave enough; you write in your pajamas; you stop going to the gym. You probably start smoking. You eat crappy microwave meals and cereal for dinner, because you can bring the bowl easily to your workstation. When you do get a break, you binge drink too often. Your nails are now long enough that you really can climb the walls.

I’ve found this gets better later. I’m a lot better disciplined than 10 years ago. Marriage helps, if only because your spouse forces you out of the house when your pants stop fitting. She’ll force you to take a shower before checking your email in the morning, compel you to stop wearing the same clothes, tell you to shave more, and make you quit smoking. Students help too. Undergrads won’t respect you if you look like a furball TA, and they’re a helluva lot better dressed than you.

3. It’s made me hypersensitive to criticism.

I remember reading Walt somewhere saying that academics are very thin-skinned and hyper-sensitive. I think I am too, although I am trying not to be. This is one reason I chose to blog; I thought it might toughen me up. But when reviewers and blog commenters criticize me, I inevitably take it the wrong way. It makes me nervous and skittish, as if maybe I’m a dilettante who got found out. (This is no plea for kid gloves, only an admission.) When I get rejection letters from academic journals, my hands shake (lame but true). I presume that means I am really insecure about my work, even though you’d think that would pass after 15 years. I think sometimes it’s because the only big thing I have in the professional world is my intellectual credibility. I have no big money, no cool DC or think-tank perch, no ‘network,’ no inside track to anything. The only reason anyone would even notice me is because I try to be a researcher who says stuff that can at least be verified somewhat. So I read at least an article of IR a day just out of anxiety. How’s that for job satisfaction?

Like everybody, I like being cited. It’s flattering. Andrew Sullivan has linked me twice, which sent thousands of people to my website. But honestly, it made almost as nervous as happy – all those people pulling apart my work, maybe thinking it was just crap. Perhaps I’m just new at this, but also I think this is an artefact of the way we are trained – to ruthlessly tear apart essays in our coursework, or to ask the preening, show-off question that knocks the conference speaker or job applicant off-balance (did you select on the dependent variable?) and makes us look clever and witty in front of our colleagues. Who hasn’t seen that kind of sarcasm at conferences, cutting, ‘I can’t believe you wrote that’ sort of analysis, ad hominem put-downs, most obviously on blogs? IR has never struck me as an especially polite, well-tempered field, more like a shark-tank. Ned Lebow once told me that IR grad school is like ‘bootcamp for your brain,’ and it’s really true that we’ve created a hypercompetitive atmosphere.

I understand why of course – US IR and other grad programs wouldn’t have the global reputations they do without it. And yes, I support it; quality control is growing issue in the Korean university system, because Korea sill lacks a major, globally ranked school. And of course, peer review is absolutely central to preserving quality and maintaining the line between us and journalism. But the tradeoffs are there – enervating and unnerrving, at least in my experience. I can’t imagine how Andrew Sullivan or Stephen Walt go to sleep at night when all those red-staters, e.g., think they are the antichrist or something. I’d be pacing the bedroom.

4. The money is weak given the hours we put in.

This one is a no-brainer. Social science is nothing if not totalist. If you don’t believe me, just go watch a movie or TV show with one, and watch her analyze it to death, draining all the fun away by endlessly interrupting to explain why the Transporter is really a commentary on traffic laws or gun control. (I’m guilty of this too.) My point is that we see our work all over the place. We think about ‘opportunity costs’ when we pick movies on date night, or ‘free riding’ when the check comes for dinner. I guess this is good in one way. It means we are using are hard-won education. But it also means that we are effectively working all the time. Even if we are reading for leisure, we will still take notes or write things down if we catch something really relevant to our work. We take social science to the beach; we read Duck of Minerva on our iPhones on the subway. At this point, I read basically everything with a pen in my hand. Who knows if you won’t find a cool quote buried in the middle of Anna Karenina?

Worse of course, is the absolutely impossible mountain of material in your field that you really should know if you want to somehow get into the top cut of journals. And who doesn’t want that? That’s the whole point. That’s why we do this to ourselves. We all, quite desperately I think, want our name up in lights in the APSR or IO. We all want to be invited to Rand or the State Department. I knew a guy who had the first page of his first APSR article embossed in gold to hang on his wall like a degree. (It was more tasteful than it sounds.) You’re always under-read, so you’re reading constantly. To be sure, your other friends in white collar profession work long hours too. That’s a constant now, but they almost certainly get paid substantially more than you and think that all you do is teach five or ten hours a week. In short, when I compare the work levels between myself and the professionals just in my family and friends (doctor, dentist, automotive engineer, nurses, lawyer, computer design tech), they make a lot more than me even though I work fairly equivalent hours.

Of course, I knew when I joined that academics don’t make a lot of money, and I accept that. We all do. Rather I am suggesting that, per work-hour, we make a lot less than most white collar professionals. That’s kinda depressing, because, e.g., we scarcely have the resources to travel much in the countries we write about. You’ve probably mentioned China in some of you published work, right? But how much time have you actually spent there? Does it feel right to generalize about a place you’ve never visited?

5. The hours I put in aren’t really reflected in my output.

Connected to point 4 is, at least in my experience, the many, many hours I spend reading, blogging, thinking that result in – not very much… I genuinely wonder how someone, say Pinker, can write an 800+ page book with hundreds of footnotes, that’s also really good. Wow. That just blows me away. I’m so impressed, and how cool that he’ll get invited onto Charlie Rose or something. Or, how do Fukuyama or Bobbitt crank out multiple books of that length? Or how did Huntington manage to write a major book in each of the 4 subfields of political science? Where does one get skills like that? That just makes me green with envy. For me, I’d be thrilled if I could just land a top ten journal piece sometime soon.

I am reminded of a complaint by Schiller about Goethe’s poetry. He envied Goethe’s ability to easily reel off lines and lines of wonderful material while he had to work very hard to produce much less. In Amadeus, Salieri complained that Mozart seemed to be taking dictation from God, even though he worked hard too. When I read really good IR, it makes me wonder how am I not fitting together what I read into good insights, whereas writers so much better than me seem to be able to do so. How do they do that? Are they reading social science all the time, on Christmas morning too? How much more do I have to read? I feel like I read all the time already. I find this a chronic source of professional frustration.

6. Few people really give a d— what you think.

Unless you scale those Huntingtonian heights and get to Charlie Rose or Rand, your reach is pretty limited. Policy-makers are bombarded with a huge volume of material, but I recall reading somewhere that they almost always consult internally produced material (memos and reports from within the bureaucracy) rather than the kind of stuff we generate on the outside. So we aren’t really policy-relevant much, unless you are the really big fish like Bernard Lewis (who got to meet W on Iraq – and blew it).

Beyond that, there are so many IR journals now (59 in the SSCI alone) that your work easily slips into the great ocean of Jstor. If you land APSR or ISQ, that’s awesome, but beyond the biggest IR journals that we all cite to each other, it’s hard to get profile for yourself. This may be another reason to blog. You can go around the editorial r&r process and speak directly to the community. But of course, blogging or op-eds aren’t peer-reviewed, and, as Steve Saideman noted, that is (and must be) the gold-standard. Worse, everybody’s blogging and tweeting and consulting now, so you’re still lost in the crowd. This too can be enervating and depressing, especially as you came into grad school as one of the better students of your college. You thought you were pretty smart, and you’d make a big splash. Now you find out that there are lots and lots of others in the field, all very smart and clamoring to be heard. Good luck.

7. I miss the ‘classics.’

The super-nerdy intellectual in me really misses this. Those black-edged Penguin Classics were the books that really got me interested in politics and ideas when I was in high school, and I never read them anymore. The first time I read Thucydides was an absolutely electric experience. I roared through it in 4 days. Same goes for stuff like On Liberty, Beyond Good and Evil, The Communist Manifesto, Darkness at Noon, 1984. God, I miss that stuff, the sheer intellectual thrill of new vistas opening. Now all I read is hyper-technical stuff, loaded with jargon, mostly from economics, so I can sound like a robot (defection, spirals, stochastic, satisficing, barriers to entry, iteration) when I talk if I need to. See Dan Nexon on this too.

As with everything else I’ve complained about above, I understand why we do this and I accept it. We can’t really read Plato or Bodin all day in IR, but I sure wish we could. I’ve often thought the IR should have a book series of classic works in our field with introductions and notes connecting classics like Thucydides, Kant, or Clausewitz to contemporary IR. We make throw-away references to these guys all the time in our introductions to make ourselves sound smart and grounded in the long tradition of political philosophy. But we don’t really read them, because we‘re reading post-Theory of International Relations stuff most of the time. When is the last time you opened up Sun Tzu or Machiavelli?

So taking a cue from Doyle’s effort to tie IR to the ‘Conversation,’ we could be release volumes like the Norton Critical Edition series or the Cambridge Texts in the History of Political Thought. But the selected texts would be more narrowly relevant to IR and the editorial matter and essays would explicitly connect the book to the IR. Reading Hobbes in an edition solely designed for IR readers would be pretty fascinating, no?

Bonus Immaturity: I knew I was a hopelessly cloistered academic the first time I glared at a difficult student over my glasses on the end of my nose, while sitting behind my desk. Good grief. I remember that pose from my own undergrad and that I wanted to punch professors like that…

Filed under: Academia, Culture, Political Science

Robert E Kelly
Assistant Professor
Department of Political Science & Diplomacy
Pusan National University
robertkelly260@hotmail.com

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Roof Topping in Korea

Koreabridge - Thu, 2012-05-10 23:00

Roof Topping in Korea

After reading about a recent rags-to-riches (in a manner of speaking) story courtesy of 500px, realized what many of us have been doing in Korea has become a “trend” Roof Topping seems to be the new thing in photography where people head to the roofs of buildings and take photos from it.

The story on one Torontonian photographer Tom Ryaboi and how his one image made him a huge success, inspired me because it showed how it takes one simple image to get you noticed. Sure I have been climbing up to the tops of roofs around Ulsan for years and I am not famous, but it just takes the right shot, at the right moment to get the right exposure.

So with that in mind, I got to the top of the CGV Building in the Old Downtown of Ulsan and got some cool shots of the city. I was also thinking about collecting a list of roof tops in Korea to shoot from as this is one of the more popular questions that I get. So if you have a place that you can get to the roof of, in Korea, please drop it in the comment section below with any details on how to get up there. I can then put together a list for people looking to get some “rooftopping” done

I will start the list with Ulsan:

CGV Building

Location: Shinae/Seungnam Dong

Details: The CGV building over looks the Taehwa River and sits next to the Exordium and Lotte Castle Towers. There is a park on the roof that is barely in use and at night is abandoned. To get to the top take the elevator to the 14th floor and hit the hit the stairs, there is also an external stair case if you feel like getting some exercise. You can take the elevator down from the 15ht floor when you return.

Family Tower

Location: Shinae/Seungnam Dong, Right next door to the CGV building.

Details: This is located right next to the CGV area and offers a better view of the Taehwa River Park and area. The top floor is vacant, so you can take the elevator right to the top and then the stairs to the roof.

Weltz Tower

Location: Mugeo-dong, on the opposite side from the Namoon Plaza towards Ulsan University.

Details: The Weltz Towers overlook the Sinbok Rotary and mugeo area. There is a nice rood top park up there and instant elevator access.

Namoon Plaza

Location: Mugeo-dong, just past Sinbok rotary towards the samhoe bridge.

Details: Namoon Plaza overlooks the opposite-side of the Sinbok Rotary and offers more of a view of the mountains and area. It is much harder to get to because the top floor is a buffet restaurant and the stairs to the roof are located inside he restaurant. If you get of on the 17th floor and take the stair there, it will be a lot easier.

Dentist Building across from Lotte Department Store

Location: Samsan-dong, across from the Lotte Multi Plaza and Next to Outback Steakhouse

Details: This place offers the best views of the Lotte Wheel and area. The top floor is easy to get to and very quiet.

Tempo Building

Location: Above the gonguptap Rotary

Details: This building offers an unobstructed view of the area and unparalleled view of the rotary. Take the elevator to the top and head up the stairs. Go out the door to the roof and take a right and climb the ladder. From here you can see all of the city and it is great.

Above the Wedding Shop

Location: Taehwa Rotary

Details: With a large billboard on the roof, it may be tough to get the the ledge as you have to crawl under the supports but the views of the Rotary are worth it. The elevator will take you most of the way to the top. This building is mostly empty so, don’t expect too much company.

Aderia Apartments

Location: Next to the aging Taehwa Hotel and the shiny new apartments.

Details: Newer apartments are a lot harder to get to the roof because of the doors. If you ask the guards or wait until someone arrives that can buzz you up. These apartments offer a great deal of views from over the Taehwa River park to across the city.

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20 Minutes

Koreabridge - Thu, 2012-05-10 17:18

20 Minutes

When I first lived in Korea I barely really lived in it at all. I stayed in my apartment trading the international financial markets, and when I ventured out – largely at the weekend on chaperoned trips – I felt more like a visiting alien, although to be fair that was the official classification the Korean government gave me; I still have the Alien Registration Card to prove it.

Recognising that living in Korea conventionally meant actually trying to live in it, I took the opportunity to do some writing for the local English-language radio station and appear on their shows, and later I got a part-time programming job so I started spending a lot of my life really out there, on the move.

One day I was on the move back from the radio station when the subway train stopped in a station and stayed there. Announcements were made by the driver in Korean so I had no idea what was happening. Ten minutes passed, and during one announcement, I held my phone up to the speaker in the carriage for my wife to listen to the explanation. Perhaps unsurprisingly, there’d been a suicide at the next station ahead of us.

Right now, screen doors are being installed at most – if not eventually all – of Busan’s subway stations ‘for your comfort and convenience’, by which I’m pretty sure they actually mean “to stop you throwing yourself off the platform into the path of an oncoming train”, which I understand happens quite a lot.

I don’t know if these suicides are planned, because it’s occurred to me in recent years that climbing up to the top of a building requires effort, but throwing yourself out in front of a train can be one of those spur of the moment decisions that mark a final act of rebellion amid Korea’s claustrophobic social conformity, although evidently placing doors on the platform to enforce a further level of social conformity is going to solve this problem.

After twenty minutes most people had left the train, but I didn’t want to venture up to the surface and try and deal with a Korean taxi-driver, so I took my chances and waited with the five other people who remained, pondering the unanswerable question of who this person was, why they’d chosen to end their life by being hit by a subway train at 8.25pm on a Wednesday evening, and whether inconveniencing the many thousands of people who had found themselves stuck in the subway system was what they wanted from their final act in this world.

I also wondered how long it took to clear a badly mangled body from the subway tracks. I imagined it would be quite a long time. Apart from the mess, surely the police would want to ensure there was no foul play? Twenty minutes is all it takes as it turns out. Because all of this has happened before, and all of this will happen again. The procedures for scraping humans off the subway tracks in Korea is well practised, and the local authorities are the Formula 1 pit crews of suicide clean-ups, which is a rather depressing realisation.

As someone who has struggled on and off with depression for a long time but is determined to see life through to its bitter end, I’m not sure I would be the best person to try and talk a suicidal Korean out of their intended course of action. But when I walked down the subway steps to the platform of one of the many trains I was catching one Thursday recently, I momentarily checked myself on discovering a youth around the age of 18 sat at the bottom sobbing uncontrollably. The new screen doors are not yet functional and his proximity three meters away from the fast end of the platform instantly concerned me.

Of course, because of the language barrier there was almost certainly nothing meaningful I could say to him, and even if I could, it might have only made him feel worse about himself that he’d embarrassed himself in front of a foreigner.

Part of me just wanted to tell him to stop using an umbrella in the rain, which is what all Koreans do but I generally don’t. This marks me out as quite possibly mentally ill in the eyes of most Koreans who fail to see their own collected psychoses which are simply called ‘society’ here, but to live life is to endure a lifetime of emotional pain far greater than the minor discomfort of getting a little wet. If you can’t feel the rain on your head and stare up in the sky and see the wonder in it falling towards you, reminding you that you are alive against the odds and for the briefest of moments in this Universe, then how can you cope with anything else? Umbrellas are a great evil foisted upon society, quite possibly as part of a secret plot by the psychiatric industry.

Becoming a father turned out to be a strange experience for me. I often look at my son wondering about his future and consider that as he is now, I once was, and as I am now, he may become. The circle of life goes on with many of the same scenes but different players. How will my story end? How will my son’s if he doesn’t live to see the Singularity? That mangled body on the tracks was someone’s baby once, and after all the joy and difficulties their parents must have experienced this is what it came down to.

That day, our twenty minutes came to an end, the blood of someone’s child was cleaned off the Busan subway tracks, and the rest of us inevitably resumed our journeys to our own eventual destinations.

--

Source: Busan Mike

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The Sterotypical Seoul Day

Koreabridge - Thu, 2012-05-10 12:32

The Sterotypical Seoul Day

...or maybe not. Maybe it's the kind of day that people like me, who only visit Seoul, want to have or do have because just being there is a special occasion. Or maybe it's just the kind of day I wish was the norm.

Either way, this past Sunday, I had one of those great, easy, sunny, fun visits to a big city that isn't mine.

My friend Sam and I had only a few days earlier, had decided to sacrifice some money, and also some sleep, to go to see Morrissey play on Sunday, in Seoul.

For those of you wondering "Who is Morrissey?"-

- you are not alone. Even Oscar Wilde wants to know. Anyway even though I don't know that much of Morrissey's solo work, I love the Smiths- an amazing British band who broke up the year after I was born. So as contemporaries of the Smiths, it's an obvious bit of fan-dom. Even though the show was just Morrissey, he did not disappoint and did provide me with more than a few opportunities to sing along to some great Smiths songs. I will say with such a prominent picture of Wilde, I was hoping to hear "Cemetry Gates", but you can't pick your own set list.

But back to the day at hand. We started off walking around Garosu-gil (Sinsa Station, exit 8 turn left at the Garisu-gil street sign) which neither I nor Sam had been to. It was really nice, lots of coffee shops and people watching. There were even signs for Pop-up shops and lots of cute little boutiques. I could have definitely done more shopping there, but I didn't want to carry tons of stuff all day. I did however buy a new pair of flip flops- only after Sam had been talking about how he needed flip flops and came up empty handed. Oops.

After meandering in that location, we decided to meander in a different area of the city- Insadong (Anguk Station).

If Garosu-gil is Pop-Up shops and boutiques and cafes, Insadong is traditional souvenirs and random Korean men playing "Redemption Song" for tourists.

I know that if I had come to Insadong the first time I visited Seoul I would have wanted to buy up all the traditional stuff insight. I also really like the set up of this mall (it's all on a mild slope so you don't have to go up stairs which is great for people who have more limited mobility).

Then of course while wandering around we stumbled upon some sort of traditional dance performance by what looked like high schoolers. We then were force fed rice cakes - like you do.

Note, these things don't always happen, I don't always end up witnessing random traditional festivals or performances, it just sort of seems like I do.

As far as hats go, I still vote for the ribbon dancer hats as my favorite.

We then walked along the Cheonggyecheon river searching for the possibility of good Mexican food but without the restaurants name or exact location. But on the river they had some sort of game station set up.

Followed by a ramshackle tree and what looked like a "Wild Thing"-esque cat.

They also had these really cool plastic 'things' strung up across the river. There were animals and houses and random other things, I still don't know exactly what the theme was, or what it was for.

But it looked cool, so that's always a plus.

There was the Seoul Friendship Fair going on with a bunch of international vendors and yummy food and beer from around the world, so it may have been for that.

There was some sort of performance going on,

and this guy seemed pretty friendly.

With all that friendship in tow, we headed off to go see the less friendly, more dramatic, but a great performer that is Morrissey. The man knows how to put on a show.

It was a great day, but then again it is really hard to find fault with beautiful weather, easy transportation, good company, good music and fun places. If only every day could be that nice and easy- it does come pretty close most of the time here.

From a Day in Seoul with Love,
Jenna

From Busan with Love
Jennaslesinski.blogspot.com

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First planting for rice in 2012

Koreabridge - Thu, 2012-05-10 12:10

First planting for rice in 2012

I have discussed farming, and rice farming in particular, on this blog many times but am posting this as an actual log or journal entry. In Gangwondo, I kept track of the first snowfall through my seven years in residence there and the record became more interesting as more data points were added.

On May 9th of 2010, I was involved in the first planting of rice. This year, it was may 5th, although there was more to do after we left.

A lot of rice farming is done with machines but there are many steps to the process so we were busy enough. First, the rice seeds are soaked in some mystery liquid – I presume it was connected with fertilizer or pesticide. Then the seeds are placed in trays and left to sprout until the trays look like they are full of grass sod. This is the first planting. Then, after a month or so, the sod trays are loaded into a machine that plants them in flooded fields and they are left until harvest – with a few visits for spraying pesticide and such. Around October, the rice is harvested.

Here are my first-planting photos for this year.

.

—

8 years ago, I wrote about farming at my earlier blog and I wanted to access that material here so this is the link.

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