Attention everyone! Do you know about the killer fans? Whatever you do, do not… I repeat, DO NOT keep your windows or doors closed at night when your fan is running. If you do then you can die from hyperthermia or the fan can suck the oxygen out of you and you can suffocate. This is what most Koreans (even fellow professors and distinguished doctors) believe to be true, even in a country that has some of the best electrical engineers (Samsung) in the world. Go to wikipedia.org and type in “fan death”. Do I find this funny? Yes, but it is also amusing to me that 50 % of the American population think the extension of life only goes back 6,000 years. What would Darwin think? Remaining willfully Ignorant certainly is cross-cultural.
There’s never a dull moment. Boy does that adage always remain true for my life. Well, it’s been almost 10 months since I’ve lived in Korea and I believe I know about 60% of this culture…and I should add that I would laugh at anyone who thinks they know this culture after visiting for a couple of weeks. I jokingly call this place The Planet Zee-on, though The Twilight Zone would suffice. Many Foreign professionals after a 3 -5 year stretch will admit, ‘I can’t figure this place out’. There are many reasons for this. The Koreans are forthright and obscure at the same time. You have to have a serious bullshit indicator to learn what’s really going on. On the surface, everything that you embody from western culture is wrong. Up is down, left is right, and goodbye is bad-bye. Here are some examples. The Korean language, Hangul, is spoken with the verb coming before the subject. So I ask, “how did they translate Yoda’s speech from Star Wars; did they reverse it? Here’s another one. When you’re eating at a restaurant, it is rude to finish all your food because it’s a sign to the host that they haven’t fed you enough. In the west, it’s thought of as wasting food. People slurp their food here in a loud manner because it’s a sign that the food is delicious. Of course, in the west, it’s thought of as obnoxious and rude. If you try tipping people here then they get offended because they think you are treating them like a ‘charity-case’. When someone wants to know my age, I reply, “Western age or Korean age?”. In Korea, you are 1 years old when you arrive out of the womb. Even the emergency phone number here is ironically 119 instead of 911. These examples are only the tip of the iceberg and I could go on and on with the list. These are the cultural differences that you learn during the first four months. Then, you start learning about the deeper social codes (the stuff they don’t want you to know) like business relationships, marriage ect (not that they all are bad but I’ll get to it in another report). Living here is really like going to school all over again. I feel like I’m in an interstice, wedged between my own cultural make-up and trying to adapt to a new one, like mixing two completely different operating systems on a computer. If anything, I feel emboldened and extremely gracious for my experience here. There is definitely a new understanding, a relativism that I have not understood before. I do believe that Americans are too provincial and need to travel more. The Kiwis, Aussies and South Africans have us beat in that category and they are more isolated and have less money than the U.S. If I were president of a university, I would implement a policy that every student has to live in a foreign country for a semester in order to graduate (especially 3rd world and developing countries). Even if a student hated the experience, only something positive would come out of it. It’s so amusing for me to hear what people think they know about other cultures. People have such misconceptions and stereotypes because they only know their own culture so there is limited context. A lot of Americans would laugh after learning what other people in other countries think to be true of Americans. I might add that if America is provincial, then Korea is generally ‘off the charts’ provincial with little understanding of the rest of the world (they didn’t call it ‘The Hermit Kingdom for nothing). For instance, a lot of Koreans think that if you are British, then you are automatically, a ‘gentleman’.
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The biggest cultural difference I see between America and Korea is that America is an ‘I’ culture and Korea is a “we’ culture. In the west, there is a strong sense of individuality that promotes ingenuity, creativity and growth. The problem is that it’s an every person for themselves mentality (with the exception of friends and family of course), which is unfortunate when it comes to national problems like healthcare. In Korea, you don’t exist unless you are part of a group. After all, they’ve suffered and survived together as a group through horrendous brutalities from all sides. This group mentality is apparent in every aspect of Korean culture. You will never see someone eating alone and all the dishes are always in big portions and shared. In America, with the exception of pizza, buckets of fried chicken, and Thanksgiving, Americans go to a restaurant and order individual dishes of their liking. In Korea, restaurants specialize in one dish and do it very well, and it is strange for Koreans to eat something different than their friends. In America, when two people order the same thing, a friend may jokingly say, “are you trying to copy me?” Copying in Korea is not seen as being unoriginal but of being part of a collective. This is why copyright infringement is not thought of as unethical, but of a ‘sharing the wealth of information’ attitude. My friend Mark has a great story about a friend of his who taught English in America and Korea. This friend did a little experiment and had the elementary school classes in both cultures spend a couple hours drawing a car. In America, he received an odd array of concoctions ranging from drawings of rocket cars to cars with scissors sticking out of the windows. In Korea, all the cars looked the same because the first thought that probably went through that student’s head was, “how does my friend draw a car?”
I understand now why they brought me in here as a professor. The Korean Government is not stupid and they realize that in order to be competitive in a global market, they will have to change the education system. First of all, these kids grow up working their ass off (14-16 hour days) going to school until about 5:00 in the evening. Then they go to Hogwons (English schools) for a couple of hours. Then they are pressured by their parents to take on about 4-5 extracurricular activities so they have to go to 4 other private lessons and tutoring sessions. These 10 year-old kids don’t get home until 12 a.m. One of the things Koreans hate is when their friends get ahead. There is a super competitive environment so parents push their kids to death. This can be taken literally, since Korea has the highest suicide rate in the world. There have been many protests in Seoul by students holding signs reading, “We are not study machines”. The irony of all this is that college is completely modeled after American Universities. So compared to their previous schedule, college is experienced as a vacation. Students live with their parents through college so there is a curfew. There is a joke here that goes something like...”You know you’re in Korea when you’re 10-years old and you don’t get home until 12:00 a.m.. And yet when you’re unmarried at 25, you have to be home by ten.”
One of the main cultural differences in education is that students are not taught how to think critically. This is largely attributed to the fact that Korea is a Confucian based society, which is hierarchical so students are plainly told what to do and how to do it by their teachers. They don’t know how to research and they spend most of their time in high school studying for the big college entrance exam, which is taken really seriously. This is great for improving the ability to take a test (we all know the SAT or ACT), but unfortunately it doesn’t provide a strong foundation for thinking critically. This kind of fact gathering is evident when Korean students learn English. Some students know the most difficult words, though they wouldn’t know how to form a simple sentence. As a professor of art and design, I cannot see a more problematic situation especially as we move from the information age to the conceptual age (google Daniel Pink). Foreign teachers in Korea fantasize about walking into the classroom and asking, “KOREA SUCKS! WHAT DO YOU THINK?” If that doesn’t get them to think then they’re in real trouble.
Teaching has been unbelievable. I have learned so much and it is a great joy to see my students do well. Next semester, I have a whole new set of problems for them. These will be directed to make them think critically instead of trying to mimic the examples I give them for my projects. I translated Apple’s ‘Think Different” ad to inspire them. I’ve also learned that there is a huge difference in maturity between my freshmen students and my junior class. Freshmen students here are 4 years behind in maturity than American students. My theory is that they have no time to develop normal social relationships because they’re studying all the time. After the freshman year, the boys are required to serve in the military so they come back mature and all grown up. My third-year game class blew me away with their videogame prototypes. One group developed a game on the premise of building and managing an art museum. Another group developed a videogame based on the ability to perform plastic surgery. It was funny and took the game, Operation to a whole new level. I’m developing a project next semester that uses digital games for social change. I got this idea from an organization called “Games for Change”. Check it out on Google. The other big news is that I served on a graduate student’s thesis review committee in the Computer Science Department. This was surreal since I was in the opposite role, defending my thesis just last year in grad school. The professors really like me over in Computer Science and they want me to write a research note on a hand gesture recognition system they developed (like the touch-screen technology in Spielberg’s Minority Report). It is a type of augmented reality that deals with the combination of real world and computer generated data. I think it’s a great relationship we have. They really respect me for my ideas and vision while I really respect them for their ability to execute. It’s a left-brain meets right-brain team.
There were a lot of fun activities this past spring. Early on in the semester we had a sports day between departments within the design school. One thing I’ve learned is that when Koreans hold a group activity, they really go all out. This sports day had everything from cheerleaders, huge banners and flags, announcers ect. There was some strange ritual in the beginning that included a real pig’s head. The professors including myself ritually placed some money into the mouth of the pig and then bowed to the ground three times. The events included soccer, basketball and relays for the boys and arm wrestling, tug of war and three-legged races for the girls. I joined in on the Basketball game and received participation points. It turned out that my department (information design) won the whole thing. Afterwards, all of the professors took the students out for meat, soju and beer. It is perfectly normal for professors to drink with their students in Korea. After all, the students tend to drink more responsibly rather than when they are out by themselves. The other big event was Teachers Day. Man, would this be a nice thing to have in The States. Basically, the students threw this huge party for the professors and then regaled us with gifts. I received a really nice tie along with some socks, and coffee mugs.
On the weekend before Buddha’s Birthday, Gabriela, Caspar and I went up to Seoul for the Lantern Parade. We stayed at the super sheik Metro Hotel that had a toilet with 1500 functions (look for it in the upcoming Transformers movie). The Lantern Parade was a spectacle with thousands of people marching to one of the main Temples carrying an array of beautiful lanterns. Huge paper-mache floats followed along with bands of drummers, bells and gongs. The most beautiful part about the parade was seeing Buddhists represented from all over the World. It really felt international and peaceful. I smiled the whole night. Seoul is a much more interesting city once you get to know it. Insadong is a charming neighborhood with contemporary art galleries and amazing restaurants. We ate temple food at this beautiful restaurant where we were served around 20 different small dishes. It was yummy but not cheap. We also saw a graduate student’s thesis show in which he built a robotic self -portrait of himself. Robots are huge out here. I have read in several newspapers that the goal is to have robots in every home by 2015. My question, is..what are they going to do? The most impressive part of my experience in Seoul that weekend was The Korean War Museum. First of all, it is enormous. Secondly, it is very moving. You walk through Memorial Hall and see the 33,000 names of American soldiers who died. What puts a lump in my throat is the inscription above the names which reads, “Our Nation Honors Her Sons And Daughters Who Answered The Call To Defend a Country They Never Knew And A People They Never Met.”
The more I learn about this country, the more I am blown away. This country is nothing short of a miracle. In 1948, the per-capita income in South Korea was $86. The United Nations rated Koreans on par with the Sudanese. After the war ended in 1953, it had been the bloodiest episode in the country’s history. The statistics I found are staggering. As many as 3 million Koreans are believed to have died from causes related to the war. Over 33,000 Americans, 1000 British and 4000 other nationalities were killed. The economies on both sides were pulverized. And here is the economic damage assessment for South Korea: about 5 million people homeless, 300,000 women widowed, 100,000 children orphaned, millions of families separated; increased population pressure with the influx of 1 million north Korean refugees; tens of thousands of schools and other buildings destroyed; $3 billion in damage, 43 per cent of manufacturing facilities and 50 per cent of mines destroyed or damaged; and inflation accelerated as the currency increased from 71,383 million won at the end of 1949 to 650,153 million by 1953.
This is after 50 years of occupation and humiliation by the Japanese in which the Koreans were forced to cut out anything identified with their culture including their language. I’ll never forget the first time I met my boss at the airport. The second question out of his mouth was, “Did you know Korea has been attacked by Japan 3,000 times?
Now let’s look at what happened after the war. Over three decades, Korea’s economy grew by an average of almost 9 per cent a year, from $2.3 billion in 1962 to $442 billion in 1997. In 1962, there were 30, 000 registered cars in the country. By 1997, there were 10,413,427 cars, almost all of them Korean made. What most Westerners don’t understand is the lightening speed of growth here. A decade here is like a generation. The super modern movie theater and Lotte Department Store in Samsan-dong now sit on a lot that was a rice field just 15 years ago. If you saw the area, you wouldn’t believe it. In my 9 months here I have seen the city change architecturally in front of my eyes. In the year 2027, South Korea will have an economy equal to France or the U.K. Of course this speed of growth creates a major generation gap. I am always curious to talk to elderly people and ask them what it was like when they were children. The Dean here remembers the war quite vividly and she has a funny story of being confronted by U.S. Marines who liked to play with the kids and offer treats. They would drive by in their jeeps gesturing the peace sign. She interpreted the expression as a question of whether she could get two pieces of candy. She’s a character for sure.
I have made a lot of friends here. I know PHD students who are from Bangladesh, Pakistan, India, Russia, Germany ect. I have a huge slew of friends from all the English speaking countries. We all joke that it’s sort of like being in a Model United Nations Class. The Canadians are all wondering when they’re going to be invaded for their water resources. I also feel lucky because Ulsan is the perfect size. It’s not so big like Seoul, but it isn’t small either. There are so many group and sports activities that there is always something to do. Life is great. My brother, sister and her husband are coming to visit me this next week. They are my first guests and I’m really excited. My next posting will be in another month and I’ll report on my trip to Japan, and the influence of the show Sex and The City is having on Korean culture here. Cheers from the east side.
March 28th, 2007
Pioneers of the Internet
I had an eye opening discussion about broadband Internet technology with my boss the other day. I also did some research and was astonished at what I found. So my new apartment has a super fast Internet connection at around 4 megabits-per-second. This is also true for most of the cars here on the road with GPS units. Also, this fast speed service only costs about $ 20 a month. I am witnessing the future of the Internet here in Korea. I was amazed to learn how fast this country has been growing technologically. There are 20,000 pc bongs (game rooms) where you can rent a super-fast machine for a 1$ an hour. There are also 5 channels on my cable TV that consist of a professional video game playing. You don’t even see the person playing, just the screen of the game in action. Online gaming here has become a way of life and videogame companies have combined revenues of up to $4 billion…And I wonder why I am teaching videogame design? How did Korea grow so fast? In the 1990s, the South Korean government made one of the riskiest business investments in modern business history. It spent big on a nationwide high-capacity broadband network and offered subsidies so that 50 million Koreans could buy cheap PC’s. Fast-forward to today and Korea is now the most connected and Net-addicted country on Earth. Another reason (other than a business investment) why The Korean government wirelessly connected up the country is because 70 percent of the land is mountainous land while only 30 % of land is arable. This 30 % of arable land is the size of Rhode Island. Imagine the state of Rhode Island with 50 million people? And people think Japan is small %*&$. I have to give some credit to a country the size of Rhode Island being the 10th biggest economy in the World. The other big online phenomena is the new social networking site called Cyworld. Imagine Myspace meets Flickr, Blogger and netflix all in one. Well maybe not so much Netflix since every Korean downloads films at lightning speed before they’re even released in the theater. 90 % of Koreans in their 20s use this site for networking and the Koreans are firmly aware that every social network will have a mobile component. I’m definitely catching a glimpse of the Internet culture’s future out here.
December 14, 2006
I increased the font size after receiving complaints that the text was too small. So if you can’t read this then you need glasses. So I made it through the first semester here. I learned a lot about the basics of communication in more ways than I ever possibly imagined. I’ve even managed to learn some Korean phrases. Caspar, Gabriela and I had a big student show last week with the vice president and dean. My digital design class exhibited their movie posters while my gaming class didn’t exhibit since it was only for the freshman class. I was extremely impressed with my gaming class. They designed the most beautiful board games for their first project and then gave excellent presentations for their final project. The board games were so well designed and packaged that it looked as if you could buy it off the shelf in a store. I’ve settled into my new home quite nicely here. The gym I go to everyday is unbelievable. First of all, the gym supplies fresh workout clothes and a shoe locker so I can show up in nice clothes without having to bring anything. Secondly, part of the membership includes the sauna on the floor above. It is amazing with five different temperature pools, a dry sauna, steam room,
and a relaxation room for sleeping and watching movies. It is kind of similar to the saunas in Budapest for anyone who has been there. I feel so much healthier since I am exercising, stretching, and eating Korean food on a daily basis. It is amazing what a difference it makes. A couple of weeks ago my boss Sungkon Kim took the foreign professors to the Bulguk-sa Temple in Gyeongju which is about 45 minutes north of Ulsan. It was built in 528 during the Shilla Dynasty and survived for 1,000 years until the Japanese destroyed it in 1593. In the 1970s it was completely reconstructed and UNESCO recognized it as an international cultural property in 1995. We picked a good time to visit since the fall foliage was so beautiful. That’s about all on my side of the world. On Saturday I will be meeting close friends for a three week Southeast Asian tour in Thailand and Laos. I will have much to report after this highly anticipated trip. In January I will be teaching a one-week new media workshop that I am looking forward to.
Have a happy holiday season, stay healthy, and have a great New Years celebration.
Wed. October 25th, 2006
It is great to be home after a week of traveling in Shanghai and there is a lot of work to do before the semester ends. I have a lot of projects underway and there is a plan to have a solo show early next year. On Monday night, the foreign professors were honored at the Information Design graduate opening at the Mugeo Gallery. The faculty then convened for dinner where we proceeded with lengthy descriptions of our career histories. I met a Japanese professor named Yasushi Harada who is interested in learning some of the software I’ve been working with lately. He has amazing connections in Japan and is interested in setting up a show in Tokyo. How cool would that be?
Today, we went to a luncheon held by Chairman Chung Mong-Joon. There seems to be a communication problem between the foreign professors and faculty that does not pertain to language. For one, we are not notified about important events until the last minute and secondly, we are never clearly told what the dress codes are. We were told that this luncheon would be “Business casual” so we show up in front of 40 dignitaries all dressed in suits. So back to Chairman Chung Mong-Joon. This man is not only the University of Ulsan Chairman but he is also the Hyundai Chairman, the ex-FIFA World Cup Chairman and member of Parliament of S. Korea. This is one powerful dude. One thing I learned here in Korea is that Hyundai is enormous. Hyundai Motors is just one tiny part of the company while Hyundai Shipping is the main moneymaker. Mr. Mong-Joon has an interesting history. He basically inherited Hyundai from his father who built the company after working as a rice farmer. Mr. Mong-Joon was the favored son of his family and became a talented sportsman in equestrian jumping. In 1998, Chung won a seat in the National Assembly of South Korea and is now in his fourth term in office. In 2002, he ran for the presidency, where Chung formed a coalition with Roh Moo Hyun to swing voters away from conservative Grand National Party candidate Lee Hoi-Chang. Chung controversially withdrew his nomination in the last hour; thereby assisting Roh with the presidential win.
Nevertheless, The luncheon was a riot. Before heading for lunch, we followed Mr. Chung on a tour around the newly designed soccer field and then proceeded to get bombarded by screaming students waiting up by a gate whose exalting cheers practically made me deaf. We happened to fall into the spotlight of fame and for a brief period of time I felt like a Beatle as screaming Korean girls begged us (the foreign professors) for photographs after repeated chants of “I love you”. Warhol famously remarked that, “In the future everyone will be famous for 15 minutes”. Perhaps I caught that spotlight for 5 minutes. Do I have 10 left?
October 12, 2006
This dispatch is long overdue. My quality of life has increased ten-fold. For the first time in my life, I am a paid artist as opposed to a starving artist. I feel like I've struck the perfect balance between producing art, teaching, traveling, and most importantly, learning. It doesn't get any better than this and I am not taking any of it for granted. My experiences over here in Asia have been priceless. A lot has happened since my last report and I have met so many different, interesting people. I visited Seoul for the first time and while riding the bus, I happened to sit next to Bum Sang Yoon,the Chair of the department of Fluid Dynamics at the university I teach at. He was a curious man who spoke great English. Coincidentally, he has been to only two places in the U.S. for research, Ann Arbor, Michigan and Baltimore, MD. He was informative and taught me a great deal about Ulsan. First of all, it is the most affluent city in Korea with a median income of 35 k as opposed to the rest of the country that has a median income of 14 k (the obvious reason being Samsung and Hyundai). I also found out that Ulsan is a very new city (explains why it looks so modern). What is now a strip of luxurious shopping malls including one of the biggest ferris wheels in Asia, used to be rice fields in the late 1970s. My conversation with Mr. Yoon turned to politics and I was eager to learn more about the political climate in South Korea. Roh Moo-Hyun, the president here has horrible approval ratings based on bad economic policy, corruption, and incompetence. I told him that he couldn’t be more incompetent than George. He said, “I can’t argue with that”.
Seoul
Seoul is definitely not the greatest city I’ve visited. Seoul is kind of drab with little character. It is extremely spread out like L.A. and it takes you an hour and a half to go from one side of the city to the middle of the city. It keeps going and going... Anyways, I ended up staying with a gal named Christine who might be attending the same program I graduated from at UMBC. She is a nice girl who is teaching English, though she had some very depressing stories about horrible bosses and bad motorcycle accidents
she witnessed. I’ve heard some bad stories about teaching English here. From my experience, there are three reasons why people have a bad experience here. 1) their lives were miserable and they tried to escape somewhere far away realizing that those miserable feelings just don't go away with travel. 2) People who aren't good travelers (traveling is not for everyone) and can't handle living in another culture..and..drum roll 3) the biggest reason.. their bosses just totally suck and they get stuck in a bad situation a la Bart Simpson getting stuck on a French farm with a horrid Family. Anyways, back to Seoul..The highlight of the trip was when we ate at a terrific Moroccan restaurant followed by a trip to the ex-pats bar. Christine happened to get a phone call from her Nigerian friend who eventually met us at the bar. He then lead us to this huge party at the African Sunset Lounge, a bar for all the Nigerians doing business in Asia. I talked to this one guy who was very sharp and described the economic landscape in China. He also told me that he had gotten blamed for stealing when in actuality; the criminal was an African American guy who ran right past the Nigerian businessmen.
Speaking of crime.. South Korea is extremely safe. In fact, I have never felt safer in my life. A woman could walk home late at night and not have to worry about a thing. The paradox lies in the fact that we do have wacko Kim Jung Il pointing every artillery unit towards Seoul, ready to level it (More on that whole situation later). I believe it will be more of a culture shock to return home to the States because of the crime. Anyways, the trip to Seoul was fun but it made me feel really pleased about living in the south. Unfortunately I don’t have pictures of Seoul because I hadn’t bought my camera yet..
Pusan
I’ve been hanging out in Pusan almost every weekend. I’ve met some good friends there and I absolutely love the city. I reunited with a childhood friend; Mark Losnick, who has been living in Pusan for two years. Mark is doing really, really well. He is an avid hiker, studies Buddhism and is saving money to get a Masters in philosophy. I have a key to his apartment so I basically have a second home. Buses leave from my Office every 10 minutes and it is only 45 minutes, door to door for 1.25 $. Pusan is the second biggest city in South Korea with 3.6 million people living there. It has the fifth biggest port in the world and has the biggest fish market in Asia. The city reminds me of the San Francisco or Barcelona of Asia. It has great beaches, amazing city-life, and it’s wedged between big mountain peaks that have tons of hiking trails. It’s the strangest thing because I’ll be walking along some major shopping streets and then see a trailhead directly next to Chaos. Imagine Greenwich Village directly alongside the Appalachian Trail in Vermont and you get Pusan.
I had one of the most memorable days of 2006 recently. Mark and his buddies (that I know fairly well now) took me up to this trail that stretches six miles above Pusan and leads you to this amazing Buddhist temple called Beomosa. We hiked all day following an ancient wall that runs up the ridge of the main mountain. By the time we had hiked down the other side, we reached the temple at night and witnessed Buddhist monks praying alongside thousands of lanterns. We were offered warm tea and relaxed for about an hour. Nobody said a word.
Last weekend I went hiking on some other mountains in Pusan and discovered a funny-looking exercise gym in the middle of the woods. Some of the machines were absolutely ridiculous. One apparatus looked like something a gerbil might like. Another observation was that there were no animals in what appeared to be fairly dense patches of forest. I saw some squirrels and lots of birds but no deer or rabbits. I later learned that the reason there are no animals is because the Koreans ate them all. That’s right, Koreans eat dogs, cats..silk worms.. If it’s alive then it’s edible. There are two restaurants in Ulsan that are famous for whale. My boss says it is extremely good and tastes like a ribeye steak that melts in your mouth. I eat most foods but I don’t know about whale. Maybe I’ll try it. I have experienced some amazing new dishes here. One is this dish called Dak that the foreigners are addicted to. Basically they cook chicken and rice right in front of you in this huge paella looking dish with the most amazing spices. Yet nobody can figure out what the spices are. The other interesting side dish I tried is a small dish of peppers that look like Jalapanos. You dip these hot peppers into a really spicy, sweet sauce and for some reason; the peppers and the sauce aren’t spicy anymore. The two cancel each other out through some chemical reaction. Nevertheless, the culinary experience never ceases to amaze me.
Sushi and the Noribong
So the night before Chuseok (Korean Thanksgiving) started, my boss and the other professors took Leonard and I out to this amazing sushi restaurant. This was a beautiful, elegant restaurant where the cooks and servers wore beautiful Japanese silk outfits. We drank Korean wine, soju, beer, tea and went through 15 courses of fish. It was like the French Laundry sushi version. The owner came into our room at one point and put on a show and serenaded Leonard. I was told that the bill to this meal was exorbitant. After rolling down the stairs to the car, I had the idea that this was a call for a night-cap. I was wrong. We proceeded to go to a noribong, the name for a flashy karaoke joint where you rent a room and pay by the hour. The night never seemed to end as we ended up going to three more of these noribongs. I suppose when the Koreans go out for a party they don’t mess around.
Overall, I am having one adventure after another. There are aggravations like the fact that there are no sidewalks so cars are always creeping up on you. The language barrier can also be a little frustrating at times but I’ve gotten used to it. As for the North Korea situation, we are all watching to see how this plays out. I am in a good location because I am five hours south of the border and on the water so I can evacuate easily. If you want an interesting analysis of the Asian political climate then check out The Economist article called
IN DANGEROUS WATERS
Oct 5th 2006.
First report from The Far East
Wow! I’ve almost been here two weeks now and everyday has been an adventure filled with new sights, sounds, smells and tastes. I’m feeling great! I’m convinced that I have entered one of the most exciting periods of my life, both from a career standpoint and a cultural one. The flight over was the longest in my life. I believe the trip was 21 hours with layovers included. Baltimore-Detroit-Tokyo-Busan-Ulsan… The Tokyo flight was a hoot after realizing that the guy sitting next to me was a Japanese Elvis impersonator. You don’t see that everyday! Everyone around us wanted to hear some tunes but he said he was under a “strict” contract with his boss in Tokyo. Sungkon Kim (my boss) met me at the airport in Ulsan along with my colleague and new friend, Leonard Konopelski, a professor from Art Center in Pasadena. Leonard is a 64 year old Polish American (who looks like he is 50) with a think accent. He received the research position here at the University and works with the graduate students for 3 hours a week. He calls this his “sabbatical”. Leonard is quite the character.. He has all these fascinating stories of growing up in Poland during the communist era and he loves to drink vodka though in Korea you can only buy it at the western bars. Korea’s version of vodka is Soju which is distilled from sweet potatoes and is quite the favorite here. Last week, after grabbing dinner, Leonard proceeded to order 3 bottles of this stuff. After complete Leonard obliteration, I’m thinking in my head “ Good lord, does this man ever stop drinking?” It was my time to retire and hit the hay. I met the other two professors just yesterday. They arrived late after fulfilling some obligations in NYC. They are a young couple who have been living in NYC for 6-7 years. Gabriela is a Mexican artist who received her degree at the art institute in Chicago. Casper is a German video artist who has a journalist visa in the States. I am the only “true” American here. I have to say that I am quite impressed with the facilities here at the university. My classrooms are brand new with all the tools (projectors, multimedia systems ect..) I need to teach and demo. My assistant, Minji, is an undergraduate who helps me with any needs. She set up my bank account and shows me where to buy things. She helps me out from 10-noon everyday. She will be translating any written assignments I give out during the week. I just had my first week of classes and it was definitely an eye-opener. First of all, Most of them speak very little English. I believe that if I can teach here then I can teach anywhere. I’m taking a crash course in Pictionary and Charades, the necessary skills for teaching to someone who doesn’t understand almost everything I say. A challenge to say the least.. My photoshop 2-d design class has 34 students in it… HUGE in comparison to the States. I proceeded with formal introductions and completely failed at pronouncing their names. Supposedly Korean is easy to read because there aren’t that many characters to learn. But of course it is very difficult to speak and understand. My solution to this problem is giving all my students nicknames. This is common here. One student wants to be called Adidas and another one wants to be Tom Cruise so now I have a scientologist in my class. I teach two classes a week that are each 3 hours long. One class on Tuesday and one on wed. I almost had a heart attack when Sungkon handed me my schedule because it said I was teaching 3-d graphics and Maya. I am completely not qualified to teach this course so instead I am teaching another course that I am not qualified to teach. That is, videogame design. Yes, I am teaching a course I know very little about…amazing what an MFA will do… But I am learning quickly and I don’t have to teach development or programming. Mainly, the class is focused on videogame planning which includes storyboarding and concept development. I will learn a tremendous amount from teaching this course and it should be great for my CV.
My apartment is nice. It is about a 10 minute bus ride from the University. It is a small apartment with heated floors (for winter), air conditioner and a small patio. It’s in an affluent part of Ulsan called Okdong. The University is in a neighborhood called Mugeodong. My apartment is next to this beautiful park that has trails, streams, and bike lanes. It is impeccably maintained by the city. There is a real sense of balance and care with the landscaping. Just up from this park is a street that is loaded and I mean packed with farmers market stations that go on forever. I have to take a picture of this. You can buy every kind of fish, vegetable, meat or fruit. The fish stations are a real sight with buckets of live eels, all sorts of exotic shellfish. The countryside here is stunningly beautiful. There are mountains surrounding Ulsan (70% of Korea is mountainous) and the landscape is full of maples, pines and rock faces. The Koreans seem to make a clear distinction between the environment and the city. There is no grey-zone.. though the rivers are supposedly polluted and the city has just begun to enforce strict environmental policies.
I love the food here. It’s not everyone’s cup of tea, but I happen to love kim chee and Korean BBQ. The day after I arrived, Sungkon took Leonard and I up to this amazing restaurant in the mountains that resembled a Buddhist temple. We were the only people there and we sat on the floor using some pillows and proceeded to eat through 15 side dishes on top of bulgogi (bbq meat), Andong JJimdak (braised chicken), and bibimbop(rice with egg, vegetables and sauce). It was a meal I will never forget. I feel much healthier eating this food because there are a lot of raw vegetables, spices, and nutrients. Ulsan does have its share of American chain restaurants. Here is the list.. Dominos, Pizza Hut, KFC, Baskin Robbins (up from my apartment), TGI Fridays, and to my surprise.. Outback Steakhouse. I couldn’t believe that one. The other surprise is that grocery stores are much more expensive than eating out. I’m completely perplexed by this. I can get a great lunch for 3.50 $..Korean bbq is like 7.50 $ with about 8 side dishes included.
My social life is great and I am meeting people everyday. There are basically 4 “foreign” bars in the city. Tombstone is in the university district and is run by a bunch of Canadians. They have bar food, pool table, darts and bowling tournaments on wed. nights (at the local bowling alley). Benchwarmers is a bar on the other side of town (the old district) and run by a Canadian named Troy who is a big soccer and NFL fan. He has a huge tv set up with tivo and satellite so we can watch the NFL games. I joined a fantasy football group and it’s about 8 of us. We had the draft on Tuesday night. I also went to the bar’s 3rd anniversary party last weekend and it was packed with Scots, Kiwis, Aussies, Germans, and a lot of Canadians. Most of the foreigners are English teachers in their mid 20s. They look at me in shock with a bit of resentment when I tell them I am teaching art at the University “a REAL job” ..they say. I tell them that I worked hard and paid my dues. English teachers usually work 8 hours a day, 6 days a week. They hardly get any vacation time either. The high schools in Korea are unbelievably competitive. Korean high school students attend school from 6:00 a.m. to 1:00 a.m. This is not an exaggeration. I was stunned when I learned this. I suppose the University students I am dealing with are the top of the heap.
The city streets here are something else. Watch the movie “Blade Runner” and you’ll be in the streets of Ulsan at night. The Shinae (pronounced sheenay) is the center of town and has a main strip full of shops and restaurants that go on forever. I went to a fantastic Italian restaurant the other day in Shinae and I got a 3 course meal for 8 $. Not bad. I’ve seen some completely weird things, like a makeup store with girls dressed up in really strange pink outfits. Again, I need a picture to describe it. Also, the Koreans like to wear t-shirts with english phrases that make absolutely no sense. There is an annual competition between the foreigners to find the most bizarre T-shirt. I need to send some home. Another funny sight.. In front of the University, a bunch of students had a dance mat with techno music and strobe lights going off. Were they break dancing? No. Performing some circus stunts? No. Twirling pizza doughs in the air with some attitude? YES! Another funny story… the other night I met some Korean Architect who barely spoke English. At 2:30 in the morning, they dragged me to this bizarre karaoke place. You sit in a 8X8 room with television screens that completely surround you and a transparent ceiling with Korean women dancing over your heads. They desperately wanted to hear me sing some frank Sinatra so I sang “My Way”. They proceeded to sing these horrific Korean pop songs. I couldn’t stop laughing. Just hysterical and completely strange..I felt like I was in a dream or something. Koreans are desperate to stay competitive and they understand the ramifications of globalization. This is why there are so many english teachers here. Unlike Southeast Asia, They are very behind in the English department. If there is one word to describe the culture here it is postmodern with all sorts of influences from the west. This is a rather new phenomenon for this city. I walk down the streets and people look at me like I am an alien. I’m convinced that some of these people have never seen a black person in flesh before. This is a very old culture with a sudden stream of outside influences. This place seems like a dream, a paragon of new and old.
This weekend I am meeting a girl in seoul who is an artist and actually attending my grad school in the Fall. My friend from Baltimore connected me with her. Very small world. We talked on the phone and have a lot in common.
The first week in October is Korean thanksgiving so I am headed to Shanghai for a week. I’m staying with Jim Pascucci’s sister, Robin who is living there and teaching. Shanghai should be a mind-blower! Over winter break some friends (Rory and his girlfriend Carla) from Michigan are joining me in Thailand for 3 weeks. Should be a blast. I need to buy a camera! I need to buy a camera! All I have is a video camera. Until the next post!
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