Fresh Love
Korean’s love a reason to celebrate Westernized Holidays. So when Valentines Day swept the nation I wasn’t actually very surprised when I learned of the Koreafication of the holiday. Korea technically celebrates three gift giving days which are all based on the premise of the West’s Valentines Day celebration. They have an entirely different take on the giving of sweets and flowers to loved ones (parents, siblings, friends, lovers and bus drivers). The three “Valentine’s Days” are compartmentalized as follows.
Valentine’s Day: when females give sweets and flowers to men.
White Day: when males give sweets and flowers to females.
Black Day: the one day of the year when single people are singled out, so to speak. This day seems sort of humiliating as it is when those people who are not in a relationship are given gifts. The fact that it is called Black Day conjures up a negative image right from the get go. It would be better called, Pity Day.
The dynamic of the Westernized Valentines holiday has been completely redefined. Rather than celebrating a mutual exchange the holiday has been compartmentalized into three different one sided gift giving celebrations in attempt to not exclude anyone from the populace. A Fresh look at Love and the interpretation of “Be My Valentine.”
The Fresh Outdoors
On one cool February afternoon I decided to hop on the subway and head to Korea’s National Cemetery. A grandiose green space located directly beside a busy and loud expressway. As I walked over the pedestrian bridge to the cemetery entrance I found the sign hanging over the highway to be rather humorous: National Cemetery Please Keep Silent.
The Cemetery is reserved for Korean veterans, including those who died in the Korean Independence Movement, Korean War, and Vietnam War. Only one non-Korean person is buried here, the Canadian Francis Schoefield. The cemetery covers 343 acres of rolling hills. It has become a national holy place where over 160, 000 solider rest in peace. In the front of the main entrance stands the Hyeon Chung Tower and Gate where more than 102,000 memorial tablets have been enshrined to those who are missing in action from the Korean War. Along the entrance of the cemetery there are a plethora of gardens and massive monuments. The Memorial Monument has a beautiful stone mural which flanks both entrances. The Memorial is actually located underground. I wandered the hundreds of endless halls containing perched pictures of fallen soldiers with flowers strewn on the floor in remembrance. The ceiling is ornately decorated with colourful angelic imagery and at the bottom of the main staircase there is a massive marble sculpture which reminded me of, The Rape of the Sabine Women by Giambologna.
I walked up the central pathway which runs along a river full of reeds. On each side of the river are hundreds of thousands of tombstones. The sky was blue, the temperature a bit nippy and the sun bleating through the leafless tree’s. I hiked up a hill and stared over what seemed like an endless line of graves. Cemetery’s are a perfect place to snap pictures. The symmetry of the grave plots is simply beautiful. Row upon row upon row, as far as the eyes can see.
I sat down on a bench and leaned back into the cold winter sky. I felt like a lost dandelion, trying to find the best angle to tilt my neck on the bench which would maximize my intake of the suns rays. It was here that I realized that even a city as huge as Seoul has its perfect places where you can enjoy quiet, natural beauty and the freshness of winter.
Fresh Food
I am amazing. More specifically, I am amazing at finding delightful food emporiums. I stumbled across Passion5 Café during the Lunar Holidays as I was walking to the Leeum Samsung Art Gallery. Since my first stumble I have felt it my duty to introduce as many people as possible to this heavenly culinary establishment.
*Note: when I inform people of this café they initially roll their eyes and think I am being the typical overzealous food nerd. However, when they walk past the automatic doors their hearts leap and the dream materializes around them. They are captivated, stare at me with open mouths and say, “Wow Andrew.” It is after this reaction that I feel like I am doing God’s work.
Walking through Passion5 café you feel as though you are walking through an exclusive Chanel, Prada or Gucci showroom. But instead of fancy cloths hanging from racks, Passion5 displays individually wrapped pastries, chocolates and baked goods. The bakery is known for its traditional German Baumkuchen Roll Cake. The cakes are on display as they rotate in showcase ovens illuminated by spot lights. These huge logs are considered the most labor intensive cakes in the world. Cake batter surrounds a pole which rotates in an oven. Then marmalade, honey or icing is smeared around the cake log and covered again by another layer of cake batter. This rotation continues for several hours until the final log of cake is about two feet in diameter. The finished cakes for sale are sliced like a Christmas log so you can see the concentric circles of the honey and cake layers. I stared at one of the cake logs and tried to count the rings of honey with my pinky finger. I felt as though I was back in Grade 5 when we were all sitting around an Oak trunk trying to determine how many years the tree had lived.
A long fridge displays artfully decorated little glass jars of custard (vanilla, coffee or strawberry). In the center of the east wing sits a rotating circular fridge holding masterworks of cake decoration. The west side of the café showcases various French baked goods. I was gitty with excitement when I found baguettes sitting on a shelf. I looked both ways and made sure the coast was clear before pinching the sides of the loaf. I giggled as I felt a perfectly harmonious crunch of the exterior and could feel the soft texture within. Beyond the bakery display there is a crepe maker, sandwich designer and a seating area where top of the line tea and coffee can be purchased.
On my first visit I met with Shareen and she could not stop gawking. We sort of ran around like children in a candy store. We had both brought our journals so that we could write some poetry in between conversation and cappuccino slurps.
I organized two trays. One for take home and the other for immediate consumption. To take home: a long slender French baguette, a huge seven grain loaf which looked like a nine month pregnant belly, chocolate croissant filled with orange marmalade and a banana chocolate tart.
We walked into the café and sat down by a delightful window which looked out onto the street. We were surrounded by Korean woman munching on sandwiches and sipping on tea as they snapped pictures of themselves with huge Canon and Nikon professional cameras. The café’s design is ultra modern black and white checkered walls with globular overhead lamps which looked as though they were hanging water droplets.
Once seated I ordered a double espresso and fresh lemonade. The lemonade was a delightful surprise. Looking through the crystal glass I could see an array of colours. The bottom of the glass consisted of honey and lemon pulp. Followed by a layer of crushed ice and sparkling Perrier. The top of the glass featured a lemon slice which was cut into the shape of a rose and decorated with a simple mint leaf.
I watched as Shareen ate a cheese croissant and chocolate and whipped cream ganache cake. I was so pleased when her eyes closed and magic went off inside her head. I must have looked like an obese pig as the waitress continued to bring out the various items that I had selected for my lunch. An English Muffin with oyster mushrooms, brie and salami. Fig toast with onion, pepper, croutons, broccoli, feta, fried sesame tofu and smoked salmon. Sliced cheese baguette, onion and bacon roll, a cute glass of strawberry custard (four layers: bottom burnt caramel followed by a layer of vanilla custard, strawberry cream and topped with strawberry coulis). I finished off my meal with a piping hot Camembert Apple Quiche.
Fresh French Food. Divine.
Fresh Dances
For the first time since living in Seoul I finally made the night trip to Hongdae. Hongkuk University is the cities premier arts college and the surrounding neighborhood features the cities most exclusive night life hang outs. The down side is that it is way on the other side of the city. A twenty dollar cab ride home is quite a hike. As I walked down the streets of Hongdae at 3am I felt a wave of charm surround me. I felt another one of those odd moments where I thought in my head, “this looks like something out of the movie.” All of the club, disco, lounge, bar and restaurant entrances were ornately decorated. Every corner of the street was lit up in huge Korean neon signs.
We had been invited to the exclusive Rainbow Party at Club Via where a famous Japanese DJ was spinning tables for the evening. We headed downstairs and gawked at the funky threads being worn by the many university art students. I believe Shareen said something along the lines of, “these kids have tight style.” The DJ arrived in a huge black fro wig. The crowd went crazy for this cross dressing music maven. Huge subwoofers blared toxic bass lines across the dance floors and I spent most of the next three hours dancing in the air. We quickly became best friends with several locals. One girl named Yum wore a big baggy hoody featuring early 90’s Super Mario graphics. We hobbled out of the club at 4am and I soon found myself zooming across the city back to my hood in Gwangjin.
Fresh School
I felt a great sense of accomplishment my last week of school. I had just finished my first semester as a teacher! We read the last chapter of Pride and Prejudice and I was once again floored by my students. The homework books asked the students “what do you think of a woman proposing to a man?” The question is supposed to invoke a response regarding Darcy’s proposal to Jane. I was shocked by their responses. Not one female student thought it was ok for a woman to propose to a man. Talk about a room full of suffragette haters. Most of the responses went something like this:
1) It would be funny. I asked them to elaborate and most explained that if they saw a woman propose to a man in a movie they would laugh because “it makes no sense.”
2) It would be bad. The reasoning here is that woman are not “strong enough” to ask a man to marry them. Several girls told me that “girls are too nervous they can’t ask men serious questions.” My jaw dropped. These girls were certainly pro woman’s lib!
3) Four girls gave me an obscure response. They could not even speak. They had their little hands over their mouths and they were giggling. Apparently the thought of a woman proposing in this culture elicits a response of shame and awkward laughs. I would like to note that the boys impressed me on the most part. A handful of them asserted that they think it would be ok if a girl proposed to them. I think they enjoyed the idea of placing the nerves of proposal onto the woman’s end of the equation.
And all of a sudden it was Monday morning and I found myself standing in front of the photocopier printing off hundreds of CDI Welcome Packets. For some reason I was all nervous again as I would be teaching new materials and new students. This semester I am teaching students at a much lower level of English. I really enjoyed being able to have a normal dialogue with my incredibly bright upper level students but now I was being thrown into an entirely different teaching mix.
The first week was bitter sweet. My favorite class consists of five students in middle school. Small middle school classes are excellent as they aren’t shy and speak up quite a bit. One particular student always has me laughing. Her name is Ashley and she has an unbearably awkward crush on me. She asked me if I was married or had a girlfriend and I told her, “yes I do have girlfriends.” She asked what her name was and I responded, “I have fifteen girlfriends.” The entire class started squealing to say the least.
On the first day of class Ashley pointed to my shaved head and said, “oh you are Justin Timberlake and have big eyes. I like big eyes. Very good!” During class breaks she runs out of the room and gathers a crowd of girls who stare at me and whisper as I pass through the hall. She tries to take pictures of me with her cell phone when I am not looking and I often find her staring right at me during periods of the class where everyone is working away in their homework books. All of the other teachers are starting to call me Justin.
Ashley tries to have one on one conversations with me in the middle of class. I have discovered a few interesting things about her. She lives in Kongdae which is the busy University neighborhood about twenty minutes walk from my house. Her father works for a company in mergers and acquisitions in Kazakhstan. I’ve never met anyone that worked in Kazakhstan so I found that rather funny. I couldn’t help but wonder if her father finds Borat funny. Before the end of class I asked my five female middle school students to watch The Devil Wears Prada in English without Korean subtitles in order to practice their listening skills. I do believe I just gave these kids the best homework assignment in the existence of school.
And then my sweet classes turned to sour. I now ritually loath Tuesday and Thursday nights. The class consists of fifteen middle school boys and girls with a very low level of English comprehension. They are all entirely scared to speak in front of their peers. I spend three hours desperately trying to get them to speak. I was on the verge of tears my first day as this was my first encounter with students who refused to participate. I was soon advised by seasoned teachers that I need to punish them for not speaking so they understand what is expected in class. I now have non speakers standing on one foot for an hour and holding books over their head. The worst part of this particular class are my students May and Jee See. These two girls are the perfect example of rude and snobby students. I am often shocked at what they will say to me. All of the other students shudder. I have been told these particular students are trying to test my boundaries so I have been schooled on how to deal with them properly.
During my next class with Ashley I asked her about what “normal school” during the day is like in Korea. The entire class explained to me in great detail that teachers are considered parental figures who are involved in the rearing of “good children.” Teachers have canes and wack children over the hands, heads and feet for not behaving properly in class. One girl named June told me that she came home with a bruise on her hands one day after school. She told her parents that her teacher hit her and their response was, “good they are making you a good student.” Our school prohibits such treatment but I do know of other private schools where foreigners are encouraged to use various implements to smack the kids in line.
The behavior of the two little witches now made more sense to me. They thought I was a joke. They were here after school doing extra curricular work. They didn’t really care what I had to say as they knew they didn’t have to worry about getting physically beat by me. So without our sticks, the teachers at CDI are armed with words. We are encouraged to “rip their self confidence from under their feet.” And I want to make it clear that we don’t scream and call them demoralizing names. Instead we make them “lose face” in front of their class mates. I am already biting my nails and scouting out a game plan for dealing with the Two Witches. I constantly talk about them during our staff dinner break and all of the other teachers stick their heads in the door to see how absolutely dull and wretched my class looks. They don’t even leave the room during their break. They sit at their seat and stare at the board or text message on their cell phones. I could drop a pin on the floor and it would cause an excruciatingly loud noise.
May is the worst girl on the face of this earth. Ok I’m being a bit dramatic but she certainly needs a personality face lift. Coincidentally we are reading The Salem Witch Trials this semester. I have to always have my eye on May during class to make sure she is working and not wreaking havoc on the class room. I found myself last night sitting on my desk thinking in my head, “Oh Witch Girl, Maybe she’s born with it? Maybe its Maybelline.”
Fresh Books
I have been slowly reading through a quirky fact filled food novel, The Rituals of Dinner: The Origins, Evolution, Eccentricities, and Meaning of Table Manners by Margaret Visser. The book takes food nerd to an entirely different level. I am constantly discussing random table manner facts at school and my fellow teachers roll their eyes at me (did you know that it was customary during the Middle Ages to clean your dirty fingers by wiping them on the top of your head in your hair?) The book discusses everything from the evolution of the fork to food taboo’s in 16th century France. I enjoy the obscure food facts such as how tribes in Papua New Guinea and wild monkeys in the mountains of Japan act in similar ways when cleaning their sweet potatoes. The book is an anthropological study of how food defines humanity. Two of my favorite quotes from the book liken the relationship of westernized cutlery using a Freudian psychological analogy and discuss the details of a Western banquet.
A Freudian analysis of the knife, fork and spoon gives the spoon the female role in the trio; the fork, if I understand the writer correctly, is a male child of the knife and spoon, and, like a little Oedipus, resentful of the knife and jealous of the spoon.
A Western banquet recapitulates the history of the earth from primal broth through sea beasts to land predators and flying creatures and ends with evidence of human culture in cheese and artful puddings.
Freshness in the News
The International News has been chock full of exciting fresh details in the past few weeks! The Oscars, American recession causing global turmoil, the New York Philharmonic Orchestra playing a mind blowing concert in Pyongyang North Korea and a negligible war situation involving Venezuala, Columbia and Ecuador.
Based on the time difference between Hollywood and Seoul the Oscars air live from 10am until 2pm. It was very odd to know that millions of people around the world were watching the Oscars at different times. Being egocentric I for some reason thought everyone had Oscar parties at 8pm. Don’t forget the drinks and munchies, right? How wrong was I. Firstly it is a huge fallacy when American television tells you that billions of people around the world watch the Oscars. None of my students have ever heard of it.
In the lobby of my gym there is a large sitting area and huge Samsung Plasma screen which shows the most important up to the minute news. I often stop after my swim to see what is happening in the world as I don’t have a television and reading the news isn’t as fun as watching it unfold in front of you. I ran to the pool a bit early on Oscar day in hopes to catch a few glimpses of the red carpet. I slid through the front doors and was excited to see a huge mass of people staring at the television screen. My smile quickly dropped into a frown as I noticed they were not watching the Oscars. I then had to laugh as I realized that the global popularity of the Oscars around the world is really a Westernized myth.
What could all of these people be watching on the television that was so important? I stared up at the screen and was shocked and awed at the procession being televised live. Hard-charging former businessman Lee Myung-bak took the oath of office as South Korea’s new president, vowing to revitalize the economy, strengthen relations with the U.S. and deal with nuclear-armed North Korea. The conservative, pro-U.S. Lee, nicknamed “The Bulldozer” for the can-do image he honed as a construction company CEO and later as mayor of Seoul, was sworn into office in a colorful outdoor ceremony at the National Assembly in the presence of tens of thousands of onlookers. The cameras panned across the crowd and then centered itself on the stage which was covered with an orchestra of hundreds of instruments and opera singers. What a spectacle! Far better than Joan Rivers! I spotted the new President flanked on both sides by Condoleezza Rice and the Prime Minister of Japan Yasuo Fukuda.
After my swim I ran home and had a charming webcam skype moment with my friends Bobby and Darryl in Toronto. Darryl turned his webcam towards his television so for a brief moment I felt as though I was home watching the Academy Awards. I had to rush to work so I said goodbye and as I walked down the street I couldn’t help but think how lovely the internet is. I was able to have a three way visual experience from Korea with my friends in Canada watching a broadcast taking place in America. Brilliant!
In other News. The New York Philharmonic became the most prominent U.S. cultural institution to visit isolated, nuclear-armed North Korea, and orchestra members said they hoped their musical diplomacy could bring the two nations closer together. North Korea made unprecedented accommodations for the orchestra, allowing a delegation of nearly 300 people, including musicians, staff and journalists to fly into Pyongyang on a chartered plane for 48 hours. It was a pleasure to be able to live in Korea while this landmark concert was going on just a few hundred miles from where I was living. The Orchestra then flew to Seoul and played a one night show for the social elite. One of my co workers tried to get tickets and even though the price was astronomical he was willing to attempt to purchase them. Watching the New York Philharmonic the day after they played in North Korea would have been a moment I would never have soon forgotten.
