Movies in Korea

I went to watch Inglorious Basterds yesterday. I knew before hand that there was a lot of dialog in languages that I don't speak, so I tried my best to find out if there were English subtitles. I didn't expect there to be since I am in Korea and have been to other movies where the English subtitles were not present (one of the Bond films didn't have them at some points). I asked a theater worker and I was told "no" but then thought to ask someone else who said "yes". I decided to gamble and found out they were both right. Most of it was subtitled but other parts weren't.

The lack of subtitles didn't bother me as much as the idiot piece of shit who brought their dog with a noisy collar that jingled and jangled throughout the entire movie or the other moron who left their phone on "ring" mode, had it ring 3 separate times, not answering for 10 seconds or so each time, then having the audacity to actually answer and have a conversation while sitting in the theater.

I know how to say "shut up" in Korean (dok-cha) but had no idea how to say "get your fucking dog out of the theater or at least have brains enough to take off its collar!!!".

Other movie mishaps I have had in Korea were at Black and Apopolito or whatever that Mel Gibson movie is called. Black was advertised as an English movie, yet 95% was in Hindi. The Mel Gibson movie was in some other language with 0% English, so that was a complete wash. Interesting thing is that it was on TV last night and had both English and Korean subtitles.

The movie (IG) was interesting.

Interview day

Today is the day when hopeful middle school boys come here for their interview. The lucky few will be selected to attend my wonderful school for the next 3 years.

Ten years ago the school was known as one of the worst to teach at since it was seen more as a boarding school for troublesome boys than a real school. Now there are lines to get in and strict rules to follow. If these rules are broken (smoking, getting arrested) you have a good chance of being kicked out.

One student last week was asked to leave after being arrested for an off campus fight. He was a second year student (high school is only 3 years) and was only 1.5 months away from completing his second year. Unfortunately for him, due to the specialty of our curriculum, he will have to start over at 1st year when/if he returns to a regular high school. I could not imagine having to repeat 2 years and I am pretty sure he'll just drop out.

Swine flu is sweeping though our and many other schools now. My students were supposed to go to Jeju Island (Korea's Hawaii!!!!...much like Put-in-Bay is Ohio's Manhattan) for all of next wek giving me a nice little vacation. This has been canceled now, so I actually have to do the job I am being paid for.

UPDATE: looks like I may get a two week vacation instead!!

Coming into school today, I was given many surprised looks. Nobody told me that I didn't have to be here. All the teachers are in suits and ties, I am in jeans and a button down... Actually, looking around I see the other English teachers (Koreans) are wearing jeans also. I guess we are just a laid back (with my mind on...sorry) group. As I walked by the desks I saw that there was a fresh surgical mask on everyone's desk but mine (another clue that I wasn't expected). These are here to protect us from the dirty middle school kids.

So here I sit to play on the internet till lunch. I am staying because I do not want to make the other teachers angry and think the foreigner is lazy or skipping school. They are already upset that I don't have to come to class on Saturdays, but then I don't get the monetary bonuses they get. Last month they all got around $1000 for a holiday bonus, I got a $50 gift certificate.

I bought school sandles to wear in class with the money.

To celebrate sitting in an office alone I bought some chocolate milk. The box says "Our Chocolate flavored milk drink is hasty way to freshen up your day." You done good chyoko oo-yoo!!!

Korean wedding

I went to a friend's wedding this weekend to have my first real Korean wedding experience. I attended a wedding a few years ago, but it was in a church with people wandering around and chatting on their cell phones the entire time.


This wedding was different because it was at a wedding hall. This particular hall had 4 floors, each with a wedding going on. There is a small room to the side of the chapel (can't think of a better word for it) where the bride to be sits and people hop in to take her picture. When I went to visit the bride there seemed to be 50 women in the back snapping away with their camera phones. The bride looked beautiful!


Outside of the chapel is a large portrait that all Koreans have displayed at a wedding. The couples photo was really nice. One thing I do not understand is why they (and by they I mean all Koreans) leave the protective cardboard on the corners of the frame. I went to home of one teacher who had been married for 20 years and they still had the cardboard on the frame, which was proudly displayed on the livingroom wall. I will talk more about Koreans refusal to remove protective coverings from things in a later post.


The chapel itself was small but intimate and looked very nice. As the wedding started a couple girls in drum major outfits came out with swords. I was hoping that this was some holdover from the bachelor party and things were going to get interesting, but alas, they didn't fight or strip. It turns out that the girl sitting next to me used to be a wedding drum major for weddings as a summer job.


I thought that the man talking for 90% of the wedding was a chaplain, but it was actually just a friend of the groom's father, which is tradition. It can also be a former professor or other such role model. I have no idea what was being said, but I am sure it was good.

not the actual wedding, but you get the idea (watch it till at least the 3 minute mark, gets interesting!)

The ceremony lasted 18 minutes. After that people posed for pictures with the happy couple and the bouquet toss was held. My "date" caught it, though she was the only one allowed in the bouquet catching zone. Maybe they felt bad for her because she is getting old (29) and needs to marry soon (yes, she reads this).

blurred for artistic purposes, not due to shoddy photographer

Following the ceremony a few of us traveled upstairs to the buffet room. This is a shared room where all guests of all the weddings go and chow down. It was quiet a battle to get food with old women pushing and shoving everywhere. I stuffed myself with sushi and calamari.

If this is how old Korean women are at the wedding, you can only imagine how hardcore they are for bits of pineapple and chopped hotdogs

Everyone insisted I be shorter than the bride for this pic [the girl in the back, who goes by the name drama, is staring at my butt.

After the wedding festivities I went out with some Koreans to a nice little cafe that didn't seem at all like Korea and then to the apartment of some friends. It is always nice to see how the natives live in their home environment. This apartment was very modern and very nice. They even had TWO(!!!!!!) kimchi refrigerators!

kimchi refrigerator

the little things

This past week was PIFF, Pusan International Film Festival. When I saw that it was billed as the "Hub of Asian Cinema", I knew I had to go to a show.

I had a half day on Wednesday so I hopped down to the theater district and see what was showing. I first went to "Zero", a Polish film about something or other... made me miss Brno. Right after that I went and saw "Accident" which was a Hong Kong movie about assassins who kill people by setting up elaborate "accidents" to kill their victims. After a donut break I made it to the film I really wanted to see, "City of Life and Death". It is about the Nanjing massacre during World War II. It was the Chinese Shindler's List. I highly recommend seeing this.

I have been exploring a bit more and finally tried this outdoor eating area. It is basically old women sitting on little chairs cooking noodles and offering kimbap. There are about 20 of these women sitting in a row all selling the same thing.

Yum!! And all for only 2000won ($1.50)

I bought an oven that does rotisserie chicken in 20 minutes!!!!!

I was waiting for the bus at a place I normally don't catch it. I was standing by the sign for some time along with a Korean man. We both stood waiting and watching loads of other buses pass us by, but none for our stop. After some time I noticed him read some very small not stuck to the bus stop. He then walked up to me, started to speak English, then stopped and asked in Korean if I spoke Korean. This made my day.

Most people here just assume that you can't understand anything in Korea (which they are mostly right in my case) and it gets annoying. I know numbers, so when I am buying something, just tell me the price. But 95% of the time, the shop keeper will just punch the numbers into a calculator and hold it up for me to read, which I then repeat to them in Korean but they don't even pay attention.

Another guy (this time a foreigner) came up to me last night and the first thing he did was ask "Do you speak English?" Thanks for asking!

Another thing is the Koreans pointing and shouting "MIGOOK-IN!!!" which means Beautiful country person, or American. They say this just because I am white. Though they are correct, it is annoying. I have also heard Koreans talking bad about a certain foreigner doing something stupid, like being loud and drunk in a bar (not that a Korean would ever get drunk in public, just be sure to step over all those piles of vomit and passes out Koreans all over the sidewalks every monring), and call them Americans even though it is obvious (to me) that they are Russian or Canadian.

My apartment

the new neighborhood

This is my 6th apartment since I left the USA in 2004. My first apartment was in Brno and it was a decent size but basically had a kitchen, a huge hallway and a bedroom/livingroom. It also had all the possessions of a recently departed old woman everywhere, so it never felt like my one.


After that I moved into a smaller but nicer apartment on the other side of town, unfortunately it caught fire and blackened everything I owned.


This was followed by my shoebox in Korea. It was a studio with nothing to sit on but my bed and the floor.

Then it was off to Japan where I had the noisy lady upstairs and another tiny one room apartment with the only window beinga a patio door and the patio being the parking lot making it possible for anyone to just walk right into my apartment while I was sleeping.


Which led me to a much nicer place with an upstairs and a downstairs (2 rooms!!!)


Now I am back in Korea and in the biggest place of all. In the video below you may be able to notice the horses on the bottom right when I look outside for the first time. It's nice hearing them whinny (sp?) in the morning. I also hear the ships that are anchored nearby blowing their horns at 7pm. It is a really relaxing sound from this distance.

It takes about 15 minutes to walk to school, but unfortunately I have to go over a large hill. I guess it will build up my legs a bit and maybe help me shed a few pounds that I gained while gorging myself in the US.