Me Update & The DMZ

This blog post is dedicated to one of my regular readers, who always emails so politely to enquire as to my health when I haven't written for a while. Apologies for the big gap between posts, a full explanation is below.

I'll start with the me update then, before I get on to the interesting anecdotes and pretty photos. I know I spend most of my time complaining about how busy I am in almost every blog post, but this time I really, really am. The first, and saddest, reason is that Linda has now gone back to the USA after her year in Korea. I'm not sure this is the appropriate place to say much about it, but what it did mean was that the weekends before she went were filled entirely with crossing things off the Korea bucket list. Again, more on that below.

Professionally things are getting more interesting right now. As well as teaching and studying (though I'm now a bit behind on my MA stuff) I'm also doing some extra work as a workshop presenter. Last weekend I gave a three hour workshop at a middle school in Gangneung on the application of technology for teaching writing, and in a couple of weekend's time I'm presenting at the Gangwon KOTESOL meeting on taking advantage of your student's expertise. The technology was great, and went really well, but required a couple of nights spent practising in front of the mirror, plus a while learning how to use and abuse Prezi to make a fancy presentation in keeping with the technological theme.

I can't remember, and can't be bothered to look, if I had made a decision on my future last time I wrote, but I have now finally decided to change jobs next year. As much as I love my little town, and my school, it's getting frustrating teaching students from whom perhaps two or three per year will go on to study English at university, despite it being one of the four core subjects in the curriculum. I feel I would be better served trying to help some students who actually want to speak English, rather than just pass their exams. Anyway, job hunting takes even more time, but I have a couple of interesting options for next year already, and hopefully a few more to come. I'm going to stay coy on those before they have actually happened, but I will be in Korea for sure next year.

I think that's most of the news about me for now. Oh, I will be back in England some time in the first couple of months of the year, but only for ten days at most. Once I have figured out when, I'll let you all know and see if we can figure out a time to have an ale or two.

The DMZ

One of the items on the above mentioned 'Korea bucket list' was to visit the DMZ, or demilitarized zone, a 4km wide area that runs the width of the peninsula and divides the two Koreas. A few weeks ago we booked ourselves on a tour, and on Saturday morning climbed on a bus and set off North Westwards from Seoul.

A brief history lesson then, to set you off. On 25th June, 1950 the Soviet supported Northern region of the Korean peninsula invaded the US and UN supported South. They made huge gains, driving the Southern forces several hundred km back almost to Busan on the south-east tip. Then MacArthur made a famous landing at Incheon, getting behind the North Korean troops and causing havoc. This meant that the UN forces drove the North back almost to the Chinese border, at which point the Chinese entered the war and pushed the UN forces back to more or less the 38th parallel, where everything had started. With something like 2 million casualties suffered by the two sides and the civilian population, a truce was called. Significantly though, this was not an armistice, and so technically the war continues to this day. Under the terms of the treaty, both sides pulled back their troops 2 km, a border was set up and thus the DMZ came into existence.

The first stop on the tour is the third infiltration tunnel. This was the scene of an attempted Northern incursion, which was promptly ended when an SK agent discovered the plot and grassed them up. Seemingly (and this is the impression I got, as I was chatting to someone during the talk) the North Koreans tried to claim it was a coalmine, to the point of covering it in coaldust. The South wasn't buying it though, and set up huge concrete barricades as well as flooding parts of the tunnel. Whatever, as an example of digging it's pretty impressive, being several hundred metres below ground and hewn through hard rock. Typically, with anything North Korean, it was also intended for people about 4 foot 6 high. I'm noticing a strong correlation between NK sightseeing and safety helmets. Due to it being a tunnel, and thus not particularly photogenic, you'll have to make do with this description.

Next stop was the observation platform. This gave us our first real glimpse of the DMZ, and it's only human settlements. Under the terms of the treaty two villages were allowed in the DMZ, one North and one South. There is also the Kaesong industrial region, where North and South Koreans work side by side, though they are not allowed to talk to each other. If you look at the photo below, you can see Kaesong to the left, The North Korean village in the centre, and the white flag on the far right is the South Korean village of Daeseong. This was the tallest flagpole in the world when the South donated it to the village, until of course the North built a bigger one. Life in the DMZ seems pretty sweet. You don't pay taxes and the government buys 100% of your rice crop. You also dodge the mandatory national service that the rest of the country has to do. The flipside is that you havea midnight curfew, and absolutely bugger all to do seemingly. Interestingly, if you meet a girl from Daeseong you're not allowed to marry her and move into the village to escape your military service.

The three settlements in the DMZ.

Yeah, I'm wearing a lumberjack shirt. Yes, I'm annoyed that it suits me.

After that we headed down to the last station in South Korea. Trains obviously don't run any further than this, but the tracks run on into the DMZ and allegedly link up with the trans-siberian railway above North Korea. Apparently this is a sentimental place for Koreans, which is odd as it's a large, clinical and deserted modern station.

If it wasn't for Kim Jong Il I could go home on the train!

"To Pyeongyang" is more in hope than timetabling.

The checkpoint that leads to the Kaesong industrial complex.

After a stop for lunch, we got to the highlight of the tour - a visit to Panmunjeom. This is the village that contains 'Conference Row', where negotiations between the two sides usually take place. We get an official American Military Police escort, the aptly and brilliantly monickered "Specialist Blood" (some wit on the bus asks him if it's his real name) and a briefing in which we are told that the North Koreans might come down to look at us, and on no account to communicate or make eye contact with them. After that it's off to the real thing. Panmunjeom is even more eeriely quiet than the rest of the DMZ. The sole signs of life are the three Korean MP's (there for our protection) who stand in Taekwondo poses staring blankly across the border to the NK side. The prospect of being investigated by the North Koreans doesn't really materialize, except for the lone soldier on the Northern side steps who picks up a pair of binoculars for a better look. I wonder what he makes of us photographing him. From what I read of life in the North, very very few people have cameras of any sort, let alone ones built in to phones like the one I'm wielding. Does he think we're just propaganda paraded by the Imperialist South? (Are we?)

Conference Row and the NK building.

Specialist Blood.

I might be wondering if I'm about to get shot in this photo. More likely I'm just hating having my photo taken.

Being observed by the North. Look closely and you can see the guy with his binoculars.

Probably the most exciting part of the tour is going into the centre building of Conference Row. The building itself is pretty unexciting, just a blue hut with a large wooden table in the centre. We're asked to file around the table, and being near the front we find ourselves on the far side. It's at this point that Specialist Blood informs us that we just wandered into "Communist North Korea". It feels a bit odd to be honest, standing in the country that is always slightly overshadowing our lives here. We get told a couple of good stories, one about a South Korean guard who was left alone in the building and was dragged through to the Northern side, and another about a Northern soldier who got into the conference room, whose feet were so rank that whatever was on them ate the varnish on the table away. We pose for some photos with the guards, and then leave North Korea again.

On holiday in the North.

"I know what'll be really original. I'll copy this soldier's pose. No-one else will have though of that..."

Straddling the border.

The point of the soldier's pose, expression and glasses is to convey no emotion whatsoever towards the North. Has Linda grasped this fact? I'll let you decide.

The final part of the tour takes us out to Guardpost Three, and then the Bridge of No Return and the Axe Murder Incident Memorial. Guardpost Three is one of the furthest advanced points in the DMZ, surrounded on three sides by North Korean territory. From here you get an excellent view of the North Korean Propaganda Village, which is entirely unoccupied, except for the enormous flag fluttering above it. I say fluttering, it's probably more of a flap as the flag weighs enough that it takes 30 men to raise and lower it, which happens quite often as in strong winds it's heavy enough to tear itself to pieces. For any potential mercenaries out there, a 1m by 1m piece of the flag carries a significant bounty from Soldier of Fortune magazine.

The white posts there mark the border between North and South.

There's the flag, and your bounty. Don't be fooled by the pastoral appearance in front of it though. It's mostly a minefield.

Linda, backed by North Korea.

I rank North Korea among the prettiest of communist pariah states.

The last two sights on the tour are the site of the Axe Murder Incident and The Bridge of No Return. You can read the Wikipedia entry for the full story. I did think the soldier that told it to us told it with a little too much relish for one talking about the death of a fellow serviceman (think huge emphasis on "Bruuuuuuutal"). The Bridge of No Return was the site of prisoner exchanges once hostilities had ceased, and is no more accurately The Bridge of No Crossings At All, seeing as nobody has set foot on it since then.

The axe murder memorial.

The Bridge of No Return.

After those visits the tour finished with a trip to the gift shop, and then a bus ride back to Seoul past the Korean parliament building (below). If you happen to be in Korea, I can highly recommend this tour, but make sure that you do the USO one, as it's the only one that gets you into Panmunjeom, and hence allows you to bore your friends senseless with stories of the time you "went to North Korea". I'll be back soon, you lucky, lucky people.

Adios,

A

평창군 노성재 / Pyeongchang Sports Tournament

Winter is once again extending its tendrils of freezing wind south towards Jinbu again. I know this because I almost freeze to death every time I cross the river here. This impacts my life in three ways. One, I change back to my winter wardrobe of jumper, shirt and suit trousers (I almost typed 'pants' there, ick) from the plo shirt and chinos I attempted to beat the summer heat with. Two, I once more start to eat a weekly rotation of soup and stews, doenjang-jiggae (soy bean paste stew), kimchi-jiggae (fermented cabbage stew) and mandu-guk, so for a fortnight I repeatedly make bad Will Smith puns whilst cooking. Three, the cold drives all of my summer annual football buddies back inside to get fat, leaving me slogging away in the gym alone. I've just been for my first visit and it is, to put it bluntly, flipping depressing, though it doesn't really help that I work out to The Antlers.

Of course, football seasons don't just peter out, they usually finish with an FA Cup or Champions League final. Pyeongchang has it's own equivalent - the 노성제 (No-seong-jae), which I'd like you to believe is roughly equivalent. It's basically the end of season tournament for all of the towns in our area to compete at football, volleyball, dodgeball and traditional Korean wrestling.

As is becoming de rigeur for my Korean sporting endeavours, I suffer from problems with eating. Wary of the last tournament I played in I thought I would try to manage my social and sporting eating needs a bit better this time. I was strictly instructed not to eat breakfast as we'd be eating together as a team. Fair enough, I thought, making do with a banana milk before I left the house. We drive the 45 minutes down to Pyeongchang and then spend an hour or so messing around setting stuff up. Still no breakfast. The time ticks past 9.30. "What time's the first game?" I ask? "Not until 11 o'clock" comes the reply. "Shouldn't we eat then?" I ask. "In a bit". This is one area in which there is a complete lack of understanding between me and my team-mates. They can't figure out why I don't want to eat a meal an hour before I play football, and I can't figure out how they don't throw up every time they play. I reflect on this as I watch them wolf down big bowls of rice, while I fish the pieces of meat out of my soup and pick at a few vegetable side-dishes at what is now almost 10 o'clock. Still, at least there'll be lunch after the first game.

This being Korea, nothing can start without a great deal of ceremony and general poncing about. I do kind of enjoy it, but the procession was still streaming into the stadium half an hour after it started. I dread to think what the Olympics is going to be like if this much fuss was made over a county sports day. Have a look at the pictures below and see for yourself. Oh and yes, that is a dead wild boar.

I hate waiting for stuff to happen. I take after my father in this way, who would happily drive an alternative route taking three times as long than sit in a traffic jam. It must show on my face too, as my friend takes me off for some "medicine" which apparently helps calm you down. It largely has the effect of making me worry about having to give a urine sample later. Still, things get better once we start to warm up.




After a quick performance from the high school orchestra (below), it's time to take to the field. It occurs to me that this is by far the biggest crowd I've ever played in front of, probably numbering 1,000 people for the first game. I'm pretty sure that I'm the first foreigner to play in this tournament ever, and the crowd are extremely supportive, cheering every time I touch the ball (at least I think they were cheering, for all I know they were telling me to piss off back to England).

They don't actually cheer that much at first though, as I touch the ball about twice in the first half. This is mostly due to to the strange 3-3-4 formation that teams here seem to favour. This involves a defensive midfielder playing directly in front of a back three with strict instructions not to advance up the pitch. In fact, it often involves picking up a spare centre forward. However, as almost every team plays this formation it leaves me free a lot of the time, but able to have almost no influence on the game as every time we get the ball it's hoofed gleefully forward. To be fair, this is not a bad tactic as our forwards seem to be all over their defenders, and we manage to create and spurn a host of good chances. 0-0 at half time.

At half time I throw Confucian ideals to the side and tell the coach that there's plenty of space in front of me which I could quite easily be in. To my surprise, he actually agrees. Still, the half starts in the pattern as the previous one - lots of long passing, lots of chances, no goals. Finally, I get a chance to actually do something as my midfield colleague finally plays a short ball inside, allowing me to slip away from my marker, carry the ball ten yards forward and slip it through for a centre-forward to run free and finally take a chance. 1-0. That rather breaks the opposition's resolve and two minutes later we're ahead 2-0 thanks to a header from a corner. At that point I revert to my almost centre-back role. We get one more from a long ball forward and run out 3-0 winners.

Time for lunch I think, and not before time. At least I can get a bit of a feed in before the next game. We all sit down and a small tortilla-ish wrap (about two inches long) and a boiled egg each are produced. And that's it. There are times when I really, really don't understand this country.

The second game I don't recall quite so well. I remember them being a technically decent side and our defence doing a sterling job. The game would have been a very even contest were it not for their keeper making two clownish errors (conceding from a free kick 40 yards out and then dropping a corner) in the first half to hand us a two goal lead. Once again, we shut up shop admirably and close out the game. The big problem is that 10 minutes from time I get cramp due to the complete lack of food in my body, with no substitutes left I'm forced to wander around up front aimlessly.

Our third and final match is an all or nothing affair against the neighbouring valley, who have looked by far the best team in the tournament. Seemingly able to stroke it around in midfield at will, they are going to be a tough proposition. Now, to my mind the best thing to do here would be to try to maintain a bit of possession, keep our tired legs from too much running and try to sneak a goal somewhere. Not to the rest of my team, who continue to hurl it long. This time though, every time we cough up possession we chase after it again for several minutes. Funnily enough though, we actually take the lead, our midfielder scoring with an unstoppable shot from about 30 yards. Still, I feel like the victory is a long way away.

We go into half-time a little late due to a series of fouls by both teams, culminating in a scuffle (they started it, honest) and one of their supporters racing on to the pitch to try to fight the referee. The second half begins much as the first ended, us with no possession and soon the inevitable happens, due to some idiotic defending giving away a free kick on the edge of the box which is dispatched into the top corner. At 1-1 it's still pretty even, but then our legs start to give out. I get cramp in both calves at the same time, but by this point there are no more substitutes so I get stretched out and am sent back on. Sadly, just as I do get back on, a neat passing move cuts open our defence and we go 2-1 down. That's pretty much it for the game too. Jinbu legs are too tired to mount a comeback, and the oppo take the game and the tournament.

I do at this point have to say a huge thank you to the Jinbu team, and the tournament organisers for a really great day, despite the unfavourable result. I also won 50,000 won (about 30 quid) for something or other, which was nice. I'm assuming it was best foreign player. Anyway, I had a great time, made a lot of friends and didn't have to go to school thanks to a fax from the town hall to the school. After all that, I can't really count myself a loser.

I've been trying to finish this post for ages, and it's late so I'm putting it up unproofed. If the writing and spelling is worse than usual please accept my apologies.

A

News & Photos

Hi all. I've managed to find a spare hour in my weekend to write a blog post. I'm fine, in case you were wondering. This semester is now well underway, and things seem much less stressful and rushed than last semester, mostly because I simply have less classes, but also because the second semester is a couple of weeks shorter, and contains the Korean thanksgiving holiday, and so compares favourably to the relentless drudgery of the spring semester.

I'm currently mulling over a fairly difficult decision with regards to next year. I'm (almost) definitely staying in Korea, but I am considering changing jobs. I'd really like to work at a university if I can, but the big problem is that that requires not renewing my contract, and then searching for a university position. Obviously, were I not to get one, that would leave me in the proverbial. There's also the problem that I'd have to take a sizeable pay cut to go and work at a university. However, university work would be a lot more satisfying, I'd get to see my students more often, and teach at a bit of a higher level. On the other hand, I know I have a really good job here, with a school that is great, and good friends in my town and staying wouldn't be a bad thing at all. As you can see from this paragraph, it's not an easy decision. I'll let you know how it goes.

One pleasing bit of news is that I received a distinction for the first module of my MA course. It's always worrying waiting for work back, especially as my project was a little out there, and so carried the risk of being completely wrong. Thankfully, it wasn't, and I'm glad the hours of transcribing my conversations with students weren't in vain.

Anyway, that's pretty much all my news. I haven't been up to much since my last post, so below is a collection of photos from stuff I've done this year that I haven't had time to post about.

Before the summer break I had to say goodbye to my third grade classes. This made me really sad, as a nicer, more enthusiastic bunch of students you couldn't hope to meet. Really. Even the naughty kids were great. I already miss these guys an awful lot. One advantage of getting a uni job would be getting to teach some of them again!

LG Twins vs Samsung Lions baseball game in Seoul

Linda and an upside-down seal at COEX acquarium.

Zip-lining in Jumunjin.

What the Koreans really think of us.

The alchemy of dakkgalbi: a magical transformation of cabbage, chicken and pepper paste into the greatest dish in Korea. This was taken at the Chuncheon Dakkgalbi festival, where it was so good we ate it twice.

Making and eating spicy cold noodles (way, way better than it sounds), also at the Dakkgalbi festival.

That's it for another post. More news when I have time, but with my next MA module starting, it might be a couple of weeks.

A