Well FRUUUUCK. Seems that I messed up my chronology on the posts. Let's go back to the beginning of the month and start from the front of May.
"May 03, 2005 STRANGE ENCOUNTERS Its been nearly three weeks since my arrival in Ulsan, South Korea. I think it's fair to say that I am adjusting to the new environment with a certain ease. Thanks to the teacher whom I am replacing in this school, I have made some new and interesting acquaintances and am getting to know the city. I have purchased his motorbike, which really makes the first ever for me. Who knew that riding a motorcycle would be this exhilirating. The country side here is beautifull. The roads wind up and down between hills. The scenery is really breath taking and so far, besides the easy access to the local rock climbing, have not found anything more exhilirating than enjoying it on a bike.
The South Korean culture stands out as a unique one compared to the ones I have so far experienced. The segregation between men and women is enormous here and very unlike the western culture. From what I have been told, and have thus far observed, men stick to themselves and so do women. Unless we are talking about couples and dating, men and women do not mingle well with each other. Visiting one of the local night clubs, has re-confirmed my observations. Men and women sit separated. A Korean night club operates on the basis of bookings, which consists of men paying their waiters for bringing over a woman of the mans choice. No we are not talking about prostitutes or hired entertainers. Women who come to these places are subjected to constant bookings, in which case the waiter comes up, tells a particular selection that a certain gentelman wishes her presence at his table and the womans job is to obey. Strange? I thought so too. This severe gender separation apparently stems from the Confucian way of thinking. One of the Confucian rules is the strict separation of men and women. I guess I could provide some history on the subject but I will not. Let it just be said that there is an explanation to this behaviour and way of living, however strange it may appear to the outside eye.
In general Koreans are a friendly people and as long as you are not Japanese, you may be well liked, even if you are a US citizen. Yes this statement as many others is subject to generalisation. From what I have observed so far, there are traces of dormant hostility towards the Japanese due to reasons from the far past and the recent as well. I have witnessed the cutting up of a Japanese flag in the very same Night Club, which even though really harmless, was a display of pent up passive agression. I guess patriotism can sometimes turn into fanaticism."
"May 05, 2005 RAINY DAYS Some other week somewhere down the line. Its pouring rain outside and the words of my friend are flooding back to me. He had spent some time here in South Korea in Daegu, the second largest city after Seoul. His claim was that there was nothing really to do around his neighbour hood, and upon my mentioning thinking about going to South Korea he specifically said not to go to Daegu. Thinking about what he said, yeah perhaps there is a little truth to a lack of entertainment here, but isn't that the case in any place on the earth? Perhaps I have been really unlucky in finding the one place on this planet where the fun never ends. I remember whining about living in Winnipeg and having to spend the winter evenings just hanging out at home or at the bar casue there really was nothing else to do. So my buddy was unable to find his own entertainment, but maybe he was looking for it in all the wrong places. I have had the luck of finding a perfect climbing grounds within the emediate surroundings of Ulsan, and the people to climb with. Ulsan may not be much on entertainment as such, certainly nothing to be compared with a city like Paris where the neverending supply of museums, art galleries, restourants and other goodies, will keep you occupyed for decades, or Tokyo the city that seems to never sleep, even during the late and early hours of the night, but this is Ulsan. I believe the poulation here is about 1.5 mill people, or something like that, and it can hardly be fair to compare it to metropolitan cities such as Tokyo or Paris.
It has been only three weeks since my arrival in this neck of the woods, but life has been good so far and I expect it to only get better. I have always considered myself to be an optimist and I think I am fairly well trained by now at finding the good in just about any situation, even the ones that seem to be really miserable and hopeless.
Today was Childrens day in South Korea, which meant a day off work for me, since it fell on a week day. SCORE. I ended up spending the day on the climbing wall with a couple of my friends. Around the neighbourhood of the climbing sight, is a buddist temple, which I personally have not yet had a chance to view from up close, but I am sure I will get around to it sometime in the future. Perhaps this saturday. The monastery is located on the top of a mountain, about 10min walk away from the climbing wall. Every now and then, walking towards the climbing wall and at the foot of the mountain on which the temple is located, I can hear the monks chanting. All of this is surrounded by a forest, which is getting pretty thick now with leaves, needles, butterflyes, worms, wasps, frogs and other strange hornet looking things. Its really quite impressive. Along the several paths leading up to the the top of the mountain, people have been slavouring at putting up stone stacks. Kind of like minature piramids. Some of them look more like stone trees. They are built by parents wishing good luck for their kids, boys in particular. Even in simple little rituals such as this one, the masculine predominance in this country blatantly shines through. I think Korean women are pretty aggressive, but I guess they have to be in order to deal with the overly dominating psychies of the men in this country. Its all good.
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The climbing mountain has another local attraction. The Monk. The Monk is a man who lives in the mountains. Many people out in the country side, build their accomodatins litterally from sticks and stones and some plastic paper thingy cover for the roof. The Monk on the side of the mountain lives in a similar way. He leads a rather seemingly worry free life. He has two shacks built in the same way as the people down at the foot of the mountains, with the exception that his are built on the side of the mountains and the cliffs. Every single time we are there, so is he greeting us with a loud shout out of my friends name, "JO!", righ before he appears from within his shack with a big smile on his face. Only wish I could speak better Korean to communicate with him on a higher than neanderthal level."