new friends and good food

As the 15th was a holiday here, I went out with Sergeja and her Korean friend that had lived with her for a few months in London.
We started out at a little pizza place in Dongbu Ichon-Dong, near the station. I had been there once before after looking at housing with the boss. A nice little place with thin crust pizzas. Most of the menu items were seafood based, but there were a few that weren't, mostly mushrooms - cream of mushroom soup, mushroom pizza, and mushroom cream spaghetti. The mushroom pizza is great. We then moved on to Hongdae, where we went to a Korean bar/restaurant. We had some lemon soju cocktail and shared Korean green onion pancake and dubu-kimchi (cooked kimchi with tofu).

I had been craving dubu-kimchi for a long time. I LOVE IT!!! When we had had enough of that place (we were all freezing due to the air conditioning being full blast), we moved on to another bar in the area - the Liquid lounge. I knew it was a cute little place to have drinks (I had been there once before during a stagette party) so we went. We had Midori Sour. Mmmmmm. Good.

busy

I've been quite busy with work and hanging out with one of my new co-workers. SO much changed over the 2 weeks that I was away in Canada for summer vacation. The other foreign teacher (Canadian) did a midnight run (basically just skipped the country without giving the school notice or anything, right after pay day). So, the teacher that they had hired to replace on of the other teachers that left before, replaced her, and they quickly filled the other spots with Kyopos (Korean foreigners. They had said that they would hire foreigners, not Kyopos, as the Kyopos aren't really treated as foreigners, and they don't look foreign.

Things that they said would change didn't change, things that weren't supposed to change changed. When I left I had a computer in my classroom. When I got back, it was gone. They moved it to another desk in the teachers' office. BUT in there, it isn't connected to the Internet. The other computer in there is. They are just too lazy to connect it to the Net or to the printer. Useless. In my room, it was hooked up to the Net.

The new teachers are all very nice. Sam is a Korean Canadian from Toronto. Then there are Erin and Sarah, both Korean American. Sergeja is the new foreign foreign teacher and is from London. We all get along very well. I'm happy about that, of course, BUT...

other things at work are driving me nuts!

More on Korean Christians...

So far, 2 of the Korean hostages have been killed, both men, and now 2 of the women have been released. That leaves another 21 (?) hostages, mostly women.

I found this article today. Very interesting.

...
Seoul is home to 11 of the world's 12 largest Christian congregations, including Yoido, which began Bible classes in a tent in 1958 and now has 800,000 members and a goal of having 5,000 churches worldwide by 2010.
It runs the Osanri Prayer Mountain retreat, where the devout can lock themselves in cubicles for prayer and fasting, and attracts a million pilgrims annually, tens of thousands of them foreigners.

flying

For some reason, I always take pictures out the window when flying anywhere. I suppose it helps fill time. Especially when the flights are so long.
Flying home: Seoul to Vancouver (10 hours 15 minutes) to Edmonton (1 hour 25 minutes)

Flying back to Korea: Winnipeg to Vancouver (3 hours) to Seoul (11 hours 25 minutes)At the Vancouver Airport waiting for ?. After boarding, the plane just sat there for about 30 minutes. Still loading bags? I dunno.Complimentary Snack on Winnipeg to Vancouver flight - "Maized and Confused Corn Chips" - Very tasty. They had Flax seeds in them.

grapes

Grapes in Korea are interesting. Generally, they are giant dark purplish grapes with huge seeds in them. You don't eat the skins, you just squeeze and the inside pops out. The skins are usually too tough to eat. These grapes taste a bit like wine. I suppose they are related to the Concord grapes. I don't normally eat them as I can't stand the seeds. I did, however, find some seedless giant ones. Yummy![My hands are very large for a girl, so don't think they just look big because of small hands.]

romantic

I took Sage Vivant's Erotic Personality Quiz and discovered I'm a Romantic!

What is your Erotic Personality? Find out now..

Idea from Seven Inches of Sense

waiting

I love traveling and going places. BUT... I HATE FLYING. I'm afraid of flying. And it doesn't help that I am spending so much time in the airplanes and then so much time stuck in airports everywhere. I am now in the Vancouver International Airport, waiting for my flight. It was delayed about 30 minutes. So a 3.5 hour wait rather than just a 3 hour wait.
I still have yet to figure out how to travel light.

Korean Christians

It looks like many Koreans don't support the Christian hostages in Afghanistan.
I do understand, though. They can get a bit annoying. I have lost count of the number of times I have been approached on the street by Korean Christians (as well as Mormons and Jehovah's Witnesses) trying to save my soul. They also go door to door. I once had a couple of Korean women knocking at my door. At first I thought it was the land lady, so I opened the door. It turned out to be two Christian women that were going door to door with their bible and pamphlets. Seeing that I didn't speak Korean, they didn't stay for long. But then the next day, another knock on my door. I opened it to find that one of the Korean women had returned with a man that spoke English. They held my door open and kept trying to talk to me about religion. They kept trying to get me to read highlighted passages from their little bible. I told them from the beginning that I am Christian. They said not all those that call themselves Christians know the right path. They kept saying that there was God AND a God Mother. What?? That's a new one. They continued to insist that I believe them and that I should go to their church. They said they wanted to help me save my soul. I said I am Christian. I said I'm not interested. I said I'm busy. I said I have no time. I said I have to go. The kept holding my door open. I was getting soooooooo angry. My neighbor and co-worker Raph heard it all and thought about interceding, but they probably would have just done the same thing to him. Eventually, they realized that I wasn't buying what they were telling me and they left quite unhappy. Not all Korean Christians are like this, but when they are, they go beyond annoying. Some churches have a service every day. Some Koreans go to church every day. Some spend a lot of money.
A good Korean friend/co-worker goes to church every Sunday. She puts up to $20 in the collection plate every Sunday. When she gets paid at work in cash, she always asks for fresh unfolded bills, which she uses to pay several hundred dollars in tithes every month. She says she is paying for her sins. No wonder these churches can afford the things they do.
One of the very first things I noticed in Korea, on the drive from the airport to my new home, was the glow of the neon crosses that dotted the night landscape. I could see a lot of neon lights, but the crosses were the most prominent.

South Korea turns against 'arrogant' Christian hostages

By Daniel Jeffreys in Seoul 04 August 2007
The kidnap of South Korean church volunteers by the Taliban has caused deep divisions back home, forcing into the open a dark truth: many Koreans resent Christians and the speed with which they have become a dominant force in the upper echelons of society.
The captive missionaries - 18 women and five men - who were seized in Afghanistan two weeks ago hailed from the Saemmul Presbyterian Church, which is based in an affluent dormitory town south of Seoul.
After they were taken hostage, the church's online bulletin board was deluged with negative statements. Many called the missionaries "arrogant" for trying to proselytise in a Muslim country gripped by conflict.
When the group's pastor, Bae Hyung-ku, was killed last week, the hostile messages increased and the church decided to close its site rather than endure what a press release from Bae's family called "more hatred and misunderstanding."
But this did not halt the critics. A news bulletin board at Naver, Korea's leading portal, attracted vicious denunciations. "Yes, let's pray for the hostages' safe return, only to see these missionaries kneel down and apologise to the people for the Protestants' arrogance," wrote a man who described himself as a "humanist teacher."
Whang Sang-min, a psychology professor at the prestigious Yonsei University, said: "There is growing resentment toward Christians. Many Koreans feel oppressed by the power of the church."
Korea was a Buddhist country 120 years ago, with only a few thousand Christians, mostly Catholics, who faced intense persecution. By the 1960s, Korea had about a million Christians, but their numbers exploded in the decades that followed.
Christians now make up 31 per cent of South Korea's population. At night, the Seoul skyline glitters with video billboards and neon lights but all the commercial illumination is rivalled by the thousands of bright red crosses that shine from the churches found on almost every street corner.
Korea now has more than 36,000 churches, and many of them are loud and proud with a firm commitment to missionary work and a passionate zeal for evangelism.
A typical example is Somang church in the Apgugeong district, Seoul's equivalent of Knightsbridge. It attracts over 15,000 worshippers every Sunday, and the weekly church collection plate rakes in more than £30,000, much of which is devoted to funding overseas missions. The choir is packed with professional and semi-professional opera singers, and the conservative presidential candidate Lee Myung-bak is a member of the congregation.
Saemmul, the captive missionaries' church, was formed by a breakaway group from Somang and it has grown so big it recently converted a five-storey shopping centre into a new church - the Yeoido Full Gospel church in central Seoul, which has 750,000 regular attendees, making its congregation the largest in the Christian world.
Korea has 16,000 missionaries working overseas, second only to the US.
The chairmen of all South Korea's top-10 companies are Christians, as are the majority of National Assembly members.
If the Taliban kills another one of its hostages there will be great sadness here, but also more anger against Christians. A posting on Naver earlier this week gives a taste of the degree of resentment some Koreans feel: "The missionaries are getting what they deserve," wrote a woman who described herself as a secular Buddhist. "Maybe now some of them will stop trying to ram Jesus down our throats."
Kang Sung-zu, South Korea's ambassador to Afghanistan, has arranged to meet with Taliban forces within the next few days to begin negotiations for the release of the remaining 21 church workers.
The Taliban have already killed two of its captives, but it announced yesterday that no more will be executed before the direct negotiations with Mr Kang take place.

police brutality

It is so sad that things like this keep happening there. When will it end?????

Egypt police beat man to death
CAIRO: Egyptian police tortured a man to death as they were trying to track down his brother, a security source said yesterday. It was the latest in a series of human rights abuses reported in the Arab country.
The official said police detained Nasr Ahmed Abdallah without charges and beat him severely in the Nile Delta village of Tilbanah on Wednesday. He died of his wounds in hospital.
Egyptian newspapers also carried the report. The official said police held the 35-year-old carpenter in an attempt to force the surrender of his brother, who is wanted on unspecified charges.
An interior ministry spokesman declined to comment, saying public prosecutors were investigating the incident.
International and local human rights groups say torture is systematic in Egypt. Many victims have reported receiving electric shocks and severe beatings, but the government says it opposes torture and prosecutes anyone found practising it.
"The problem is that the Interior Ministry until now does not want to admit that torture is a standard method," said Gamal Eid, head of the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information.
The independent Al Masry Al Yom said villagers protested after Abdallah's death and hurled stones at the police station.
The Al Wafd opposition newspaper published a picture of what it said was his bloodied body.

(If you hadn't heard about previous incidents of police brutality in Egypt, it is easy to find on the net. I've seen it and don't want to look for it.)

Vegans

I guess I'm an animal graveyard! How about you?

Vegans shun sex with carnivores says researcher
Tue Jul 31 2:20 AM
WELLINGTON (AFP) - They say you are what you eat, and growing numbers of vegans are shunning sex with meat-eaters because they see them as "a graveyard for animals", a New Zealand researcher says.
These vegans not only refuse to eat meat or animal products but refuse to have sexual contact with meat-eaters because their bodies are made up of dead animals, the researcher was reported saying in The Press newspaper on Tuesday.
Annie Potts, co-director of the New Zealand Centre of Human and Animal Studies at New Zealand's Canterbury University, said she coined the term vegansexuals during her research.
She discovered the vegansexuals while interviewing 157 vegetarians and ethical consumers for a study.
"It's a whole new thing -- I have not come across it before," said Potts.
One vegan said while she found non-vegans attractive, but would not want to be physically close to them.
"I would not want to be intimate with someone whose body is literally made up from the bodies of others who have died for their sustenance," she said.