For reasons that aren’t worth going into, Jim and I had to drive 5 1/2 hours from Columbus to Chicago and will have to do it again on Tuesday. Let’s just say it has to do with Korean work-visas and a plethora of not quite accurate information.
I had to do a short interview presumably to prove I’m not insane, a pedophile, or harboring any visible communicable diseases. I was easily pushing ten years older than the other potential English teachers in the room, and capable of forming a complete answer for my goals and reasons for wanting to live in Korea. We interviewed in sets of two and the poor young man I interviewed with was really nervous. His parents are Christian missionaries who have gone to Korea several times, and as he put it “they rescue Korean orphans and bring them back to America.” If I weren’t so tired I could go on for quite a while about the politics and ethics regarding the word “rescue” here. I really couldn’t have been more the opposite of my interviewing counterpart. My interest in Buddhism, anthropology, and teaching, and his history of coming from a family of baby-abducting Jesus fanatics.
The interviewer was a very sweet Korean man who didn’t appear to have much of a sense of humor. Strangely, but not surprisingly, he shook the hand of the young man, but wouldn’t shake my hand at the end of the interview. He thanked me, and made it clear I passed, but I think shaking a woman’s hand was outside of his comfort zone.
It was an entertaining day even if it did involve 11 hours of driving for a half hour worth of interviewing.
The classic midwestern couple travel the world.
Filed under: Travel
Thirteen cultural things I was not aware of before moving to the south.
1. “Pin” and “pen” are pronounced the same way. Leaving me in search of a safety pin when all someone wanted was a writing utensil.
2. Mac and Cheese is a vegetable.
3. Hush puppies.
4. Collard greens.
5. The American civil war is actually called The War of Northern Aggression.
6. Any argument I was engaged in could be resolved by mentioning I was from Maine. “Ahhh, well, yer just a yank anyway.”
7. My religious affiliations are public information. It’s not if you go to church, it’s where do you go to church. And, in many circles, “I am not a Christian” is not an acceptable answer.
8. On the flip side of that, I also learned that there are some very enjoyable churches in Nashville, as well as the largest Hindu temple in the US, and ten different Buddhist groups. The bible belt is more diverse than it appears.
9. What Bless your heart really means.
10. That playing music just for the love of it is really okay.
11. That a great southern accent can not only be extremely sexy, but can wield sarcasm in a way that puts even the gutsiest New Yorker to shame.
12. That my drinking habits will be heavily governed in any state where I feel driven to drink by the surroundings.
13. That as much as I enjoyed my time living in Nashville and working in Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Georgia, and North Carolina, I will always be a northern girl at heart.
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The Places that Scare You by Pema Chodron
“For instance, even in the rock hardness of the aggression, we’ll generally find fear. Underneath the defensiveness is the brokenhearted, unshielded quality of bodhichitta. Rather than feel this tenderness, however, we tend to close down and protect against the discomfort.” pg. 56
Teaser Tuesdays is hosted by Should Be Reading.
Portland, ME
Thanks to Book Bird Dog for giving this to me.
“This award acknowledges the values that every blogger shows in his or her effort to transmit cultural, ethical, literary, and personal values every day.”
Now for the silly part:
“The rules to follow are:
1) Accept the award, post it on your blog together with the name of the person who has granted the award and his or her blog link. 2) Pass the award to 15 other blogs that are worthy of this acknowledgment. Remember to contact the bloggers to let them know they have been chosen for this award.”
I think it is rather ridiculous to create an award, and then devalue it by making it a chain letter. I’m accepting it from Book Bird Dog because she stuck to just a few blogs that were really nice to read through, and I will do the same. I don’t even read 15 other blogs regularly, but here are a few that I really do enjoy.
Naked Without Books – Susan is an English instructor in S. Korea and has just participated in a 24-hour read-a-thon.
Lotus Reads – book reviews of a worldly nature.
While Sleepwalking – My dear friend has not blogged in a little while, but the past book reviews and European travels are well worth reading through.
Lessons from the Monk I Married – A great narrative of a woman who married a South Korean monk she befriended while working overseas.
The News Dissector – He dissects the news. A great blog with lots of information, video clips, and links.
Rebecca Hosking Travel Examiner – a great friend of mine who has been to over forty countries talks about them one country at a time.
I got my placement for teaching in South Korea. I will be in Incheon, although not sure which area yet.
1. Incheon has 2.4 million people and is the third largest metropolitan area in S. Korea.
2. On Feb. 27, 2007, Incheon declared itself an “English City”, it is also a free economic zone, separate from other economic laws of S. Korea, both of these acts are an effort to attract foreign business, similar to Hong Kong.
3. Jim’s grandfather was stationed here in 1947.
4. They have two professional baseball teams.
5. It is where the main airport into S. Korea is. 
6. There are two really tall towers there. 
7. Sadly, because it is such a hub of commerce, I’m not seeing much in a search for traditional temples.
8. It is not just one area, but a bunch of islands, and yes, it is fairly close to the N. Korean border.
9. It houses Korea’s only official Chinatown.
10. Pretty pics I’ve stolen off the internet: 
11. 
12. 
13. I found this pic, it’s not built yet, construction started in 2008 and is supposed to end in 2012.
“Korea’s The Most Highest Pure Apartment!”
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Filed under: Books, Travel, War | Tags: Aschinef Latifi, Barbara Kingsolver, Emma Larkin, Eric Weiner, Fareed Zakaria, Hyok Kang, Milarepa, Nick Hornby, Robert Hicks, Simon Winchester, Steve Fainaru, Susan Brownmiller, Words Without Borders
One of my favorite blogs is my monthly books read column. Here are all the books I read this month (which happens to be thirteen) in the order I read them. Here are my January Reads and February Reads.
1. 
SEEING VIETNAM ENCOUNTERS OF THE ROAD AND HEART
2. 
High Tide in Tucson: Essays from Now or Never
3. 
The Life of Milarepa
4. 
This is Paradise! My North Korean Childhood
Kang grew up in North Korea where he and his family nearly starved to death. They believed the propaganda the NK was the most prosperous country on earth and thought if they left they would surely starve and be even worse off. Eventually his father, being tried for crimes against the state, decides they need to flee, where they discover the world is not as they’ve been told.
5. 
The Future of Freedom: Illiberal Democracy at Home and Abroad (Revised Edition)
6. 
The Man Who Loved China: The Fantastic Story of the Eccentric Scientist Who Unlocked the Mysteries of the Middle Kingdom
7. 
The Geography of Bliss: One Grump’s Search for the Happiest Places in the World
8. 
Fever Pitch
9. 
Even After All This Time: A Story of Love, Revolution, and Leaving Iran
10. 
Finding George Orwell in Burma
Probably the best book I read this month. A classic travel narrative following the footsteps of George Orwell’s time in Burma and how his travels affecting his writing. Larkin’s vivid descriptions of Burma really make this book.
11. 
Literature from the “Axis of Evil”: Writing from Iran, Iraq, North Korea, and Other Enemy Nations
12. 
The Widow of the South
Hicks was working on restoring the old Carnton Plantation, a house that had been taken over by Confederate soldiers and made into a makeshift hospital during the Civil War. He got so wrapped up in the history that this book is the fictionalized account of what he learned about the house. It is a fantastic story about Carrie McGavock, the lady of the house, and a soldier she becomes partial to. One of the interesting things for me about this book is that I live in Nashville, and Franklin, the location of this plot, is very close to here. Interview with the author.
13. 
Big Boy Rules: America’s Mercenaries Fighting in Iraq
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The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others’ comments. It’s easy, and fun!
Filed under: Travel
I haven’t done one of these in a long time. Thursday Thirteen is a blog group that posts, every Thursday, 13 interesting, mundane, profound, or pointless things; just for the sake of doing it.
Things I Hope to Learn in South Korea.
1. How to make a good Asian Noodle Soup. 
2. I hope to spend much time hanging around temples, learning better meditation skills, and immersing myself in Buddhist culture.
3. How to speak a little of the language. Although, when I was in Nepal, there were some Christian Korean missionaries trying to convert teachers at my school, and I literally thought at first that I was hearing dogs barking. It turned out to be two ministers speaking to each other.
4. How to be a better teacher.
5. How not to get lost in the world’s 11th largest city, Seoul.
6. Find out if I like kimchi. 
7. How to get to other places and get paid such as Mongolia, Bhutan, and Cambodia.
8. Do some research on time periods when Buddhist culture was oppressed by various forces in Korea.
10. Get to travel around the country, although it looks like we’ll have very little vacation time.
11. Finally meet, in person, my bookcrossing friends who have been living and teaching in S. Korea.
12. Learn some local music, maybe even take up a traditional instrument. 
13. Temples, Temples, and more Temples. 
(My thanks to the owners of all the images I just used off of google image search.)
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The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others’ comments. It’s easy, and fun!
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Filed under: Books, Peace, Travel | Tags: Eric Weiner, Geography of Bliss, NPR audio interview
Twelve Publishing is a Canadian publishing company that has dedicated itself to publishing one book a month. The twelve best books it receives every year.
I’m currently reading one of their choices, which has turned out to be superb.
The Geography of Bliss: One Grump’s Search for the Happiest Places in the World
The NPR correspondent goes around the world, travelling to the places considered the happiest to discover their collective secrets. We often relate our happiness to our geography, and he seeks to find out if this has any truth to it. “With our words, we subconsciously conflate geography and happiness. We speak of searching for happiness, of finding contentment, as if these were locations in an atlas, actual places that we could visit if only we had the proper map and the right navigational skills. Anyone who has taken a vacation to, say, some Caribbean island and had flash through their mind the uninvited thought, ‘I could be happy here’ knows what I mean.”
He travels to the Netherlands where happiness is being researched scientifically, to Switzerland where shear boredom and cleanliness seems to be the answer to the world’s purported happiest people, to Bhutan where happiness is a government goal and mandate. In Qatar he finds folks who think money can buy anything, including happiness, to Iceland – the happiness of failure, and in Thailand where happiness is just plain not thinking about it. In Moldova he finds the concept that happiness is always somewhere else, and in the US where it is in the place you consider home.
I laughed outloud three times while reading just the opening page. Weiner’s descriptions are so good, I was brought back to the places I’ve been, and felt a huge sense of desire for the places I haven’t seen yet. Except for Moldova. Moldova is the one place he visited that isn’t happy. They are described as the unhappiest people in the world. Their reasoning is that they don’t have enough money. But as Weiner viewed in Bhutan, money isn’t as important as a strong sense of culture and belonging. 90% of Bhutanese that have a chance to study in the US or Britain return to their home country, even though there is virtually no economy there. (To which an American tourist commented, “well, why would they do that.”) The real reason Weiner encounters for unhappiness is a lack of trust and true friendships, two qualities that are belittled as weakness in Moldova.
Overall, I just found this to be an intensely enjoyable book.
NPR Review of Geography of Bliss
NPR story on the Happiness Index
Ruby Ramblings 