KLB - Beijing (7)



It's really a shopper's paradise in China - especially if you're into knockoffs and, let's face reality, who in China isn't? Here is a shot of some of the stuff I picked up the other day near the Holiday Inn. Though you can buy DVDs and CDs pretty much on any corner here, the areas near foreign hotels are the best for other things like Xbox games and "designer" clothes. And, as to be expected, the places are teeming with happy tourists.



Just to give you an idea, the DVDs and Xbox games are $1.15 (10 RMB) no matter where you go. The CDs are about $2. Everything else is negotiable. They start low and go way lower. After a year and a half in China, Jake has become an expert at bartering. He's so good at it that he makes me blush in awkward embarrassment. But he got me those Armani jeans for $15 (down from $30) each, and they have all the name brands: Levis, Diesel, Paper Denim, the works. The Samsonite computer bag, he negotiated from $12 to $7. I also got a really nice leather Polo wallet for $5, all the way down from $15 (Jake burst into laughter at that price). Personally I was ready to pay the first price on most things, but Jake gets a thrill out of arguing in Chinese, so I let him take charge. Anyway, I can't get over the quality of the imitations. The jeans are excellent, even after a few washings. They're pretty much the real deal as far as I can tell. The person who made them probably made the same amount as the person making the real ones, too, at the factory next door.



Everything looks like the orignal. Look at this video game. It's an exact replica, packaging and all, though you should ditch all packaging before leaving China or risk having your new collection confiscated at the airport. I guess CDs are OK. The last time I bought a fake movie in Korea it cost me 9,000 won ($9) and consisted of a poorly photocopied inlay, a regular plastic case, and a plain white DVD-R disk. Not in China, the shit is spot on. I guess except for shoes. They look good too, but according to Jake, they fall apart quickly. Everything is copied here. Jake's going to pick up a bag of Calloway golf clubs before going home for under $100, which I guess is a great price, though I'm no golfer.


I guess some of you have been pretty disappointed with the updating, but hang in there. Because of the sheer enormity of the pictures and material I have to write and post about which is all unrelated to "Korea" Life Blog, I have been working offline on an E-book. I will make it available in a few weeks for download from the KLB bookstore for anyone interested in all this stuff about China, which I have to say is quite interesting. It will have all the photos and all the commentary you're used to seeing here on KLB, but, of course, it will be all about China. Since I may even be here longer than I planned, (it's a damn good time here) it might wind up pretty thick in content. Hang in there and thanks for reading as always!

KLB - Beijing (6)



Here is a decent blog I just found about China, but without any pictures:

Talk Talk China

I like the story he linked to here.


If you are interested, check here for a decent list of China related blogs:

Misohoni.com

KLB - Beijing (5)



Everything is going really well here. No offense to Korea, but I'm having an excellent time in Beijing. No question about my stomach anymore. I'm now adjusted! The only downside has been the weather as of late. The average temperature has been a sickly 38 degrees Celsius, or between 95 and 100 Fahrenheit, which has kept me in the house for the most part the past week. Jake said it got up to 104 degrees today. Good thing he has an excellent air conditioner.

Anyway, despite the heat I've been having a lot of fun enjoying ice cold Chinese beer (about 15 cents a bottle), shopping all over town, feasting on a variety of delicious Chinese foods, hanging around with Jake and, when unable to get out of the house, watching some of my ever quickly multiplying movie collection. What could be more fun that this? A big Chinese temple? Maybe, but I don't think so. I haven't been to a single tourist trap so far. Jake says they're all a waste of money, as to be expected. I fell for that crap in Thailand. I guess maybe I should go hike the Great Wall, but not in this weather!

I think I could live here quite awhile, if I didn't have other plans, that is. China is huge and there is so much to do! It would be nice to go travel - especially in the cooler weather and preferably with someone who can speak Chinese or after picking up the basics myself, which I am doing already. I can safely say that Korean is the hardest language on earth to pronounce. I always thought I was just bad at languages, but that's not it. It seems so much easier to hear and speak Japanese, as I've been studying, and now Chinese. I picked up a lot already. I swear if I studied for a few weeks my Chinese would surpass my Korean, kapoa xing zao! just like that. I've been having mini conversations already. I guess it also helps that you pretty much have to speak Chinese here or you simply can't get by.

Well, I don't want to waste too much time in front of the computer, but here are a couple of teaser pictures to hold you over.



This is me about to eat some kind of spicy crayfish, shell and all! To hell with cracking and digging out the meat!



And this is one of the best Chinese dishes I've had. It's authentic Kung Pao chicken and it's delicious. The price? Less than a dollar. We've been eating here a lot, trying a bunch of different dishes, drinking a beer or two, never leaving with a bill over $5 total. I love China!

KLB - Beijing (4)


Sorry for the lack of updates and pictures, but come on, I'm on vacation. Actually I've been stuck in the house for the most part the past couple of days with the runs. "Welcome, to China," Jake said, with an evil grin. Apparently he lived for six months here before his stomach adjusted to Chinese food. Same with his prior roommate. I know mine sure hasn't! I've practically read a whole book on the crapper the past two days. Got a pizza tonight and will stick to western style for a few days...phew! Well, if you could see some of the stuff I've eaten, you'd understand why. It's all been pretty good, but there's been a few...oddities...

Other than that I'm doing really well. It feels good to take it easy after working for the past 10 months. You get a lot of miscellaneous holidays in Korea but never more than a week at a time, unless you're a university professor. Still, I can't complain. It's just nice that I am able to take some time off after a 10 month run with the same kids every day. On the other hand, the Chinese work 7 days a week from what I can see. Nothing closes on Sunday, including the banks and post offices. And that construction down below never stops, except between the hours of 10 p.m. and 5 a.m. The sun comes up here at 4:30 in the morning. Jake told me that all of China has the same time, so that if you travel in the middle of nowhere, the sun may go down at 3:00 p.m.

I admire that Jake can speak Chinese so well. He struggled a lot with Korean, as do most of us. It seems, as far as speaking, Korean is the hardest of the three main Asian languages. Chinese is hard too, of course, but they use the same subject-verb-object structure as we do in English. Just forget ever being able to read it well. I've been studying speaking Chinese, too, though I still find Japanese to be easier to pronounce. Korean makes me want to back my head on a wall. I just can't hear it well and I never had the chance to study intensively at one of the universities and I always had a girlfriend who could speak fluent English, not to mention I don't have any male Korean friends. Excuses, yeah, I know. Tell it to Jesus, Shawn. Seriously, you really can get by in Korea only learning how to read Korean and being able to speak a little. After all, there are a lot of English words in Korean. A ton, actually. That's not that case in China - everything has a Chinese word. If you don't speak Chinese, you really can't get very far here. That may change the closer it gets to the 2008 Olympics, though...

Well, that's it for tonight. I know I promised some pictures but the last thing I feel like doing is using the computer all the time and there has already been so much to tell and so many photos that I don't know where to begin...stay tuned though. I may have a lot of free time on my hands if my stomach doesn't get any better.

KLB - Beijing (3)



I've had three misconceptions about Beijing already:

1. Internet. I thought it sucked. Wrong. It was my friend's 5-year-old Mac that was the problem. I've got my computer running now and the net is fast, pretty much as fast as in Korea. Still, it's a serious bummer that I can't see a lot of sites blocked by the government...

2. Pollution. The day I got here, the temperature was in the mid 90s and the sky was a strange white color. Stifling and depressing. I figured it must always be the same. Well, over the last few days it rained a little, a cool front came in and tonight I saw the prettiest sky I've seen in 5 years. Pics to come. Everything just cleared right up and it's like I'm in the middle of American countryside - except for the gigantic apartment complexes, wait until you see.

3. Dangerous. It seemed awful seedy when I first arrived. Hanging out with Jake, who I must say can speak Chinese far better than I ever imagined (he argued on the phone today for 30 minutes with his internet company) I got to realize it really isn't so bad. In a year and four months, Jake has never once been in a fight or robbed or in any trouble. Jake said the Chinese go to jail for fighting, maybe up to 5 years if they fight or otherwise harm a foreigner, so they don't bother him. Still, I haven't seen a single police officer myself. Wish they would enforce the traffic laws. The streets are crazy and dangerous to cross.

I've been having a blast, to be honest. In addition to just relaxing when my friend is at work, exercising, studying Chinese and Japanese, playing a lot of guitar, I've also been experiencing Beijing, China every night! It really pays to have a friend who can speak the language and who has been here for over a year. I'm not much into touristy places. Seriously, I've been happy just diving right into the local life. That's where the real experiences are anyway. So, I'm living like the Chinese do. Well, like the Chinese who aren't poor do, that is. Or like the Koreans who live around here making their riches off the Chinese. They're kind of snobby, says Jake.

There are construction workers working next door 16 hours a day or more on some new building and they live like slaves in "worker housing" with no running water. They make, according to Jake, about $50-$100 a month. They look damn haggard and tired when you pass them on the street. Really makes you think about how lucky you have it, in comparison. That's why I never fret about taking it easy in life and living like I want, working when I want, etc, because I am lucky enough to be able to live as I want, thank you America. I've been watching them and feeling a lot of pity but also appreciative for what I have and happy that I never had to suffer, nor chose to make myself suffer when I didn't have to just because everyone around me thought that's how you make it. You know what, I'm doing just fine in life. I'm the luckiest and happiest person I know right now. I'm very rarely depressed, compared to how often I felt miserable in America, ironically, going to work feeling like a schmuck in an office every day.

It takes a first hand look at real destitution to realize I have everything I want, everything I need, and, don't forget, chances - always chances. A lot of people in this world have no chances - or they buried their chances without realizing they even had them at all. I have so many chances, and for that I am truly grateful. That's why I can't denounce my country entirely, though I despise Americanism and most of what comes with that. We are given a lot of chances, no doubt about it, back there, lots of chances to get out and see the world, and that's where we are lucky. If you're Chinese you can't get out of China, unless you're rich or have connections. If you're a Chinese man, you really have to suffer. You don't have to as an American, that is, if you use your head a little.

Anyway, as for the "rich" American - I've had some excellent local cuisine including authentic Kung Pao chicken, some kind of delicious carp (who ever thought carp would taste delicious!) lamb on a stick (sounds gross but it's just as good - if not better than chicken on a stick) and shrimp and broccoli stir-fry which I made myself. A big bag of shrimp only cost me around $2.50. Eating here is dirt cheap, especially if you eat street food.

I had a lot of pics to go along with this post, but I just got connected today with the internet and now I'm getting tired. I just wanted to get this update out there for now to let you know how I'm making out here in China. Well, so far I love it. Stay tuned. There is so much to write about.

KLB - Beijing (2)



On the bright side, you can plug anything in the wall in China from America or Korea. It all fits in the sockets and the power is automatically converted. Unfortunately the internet in China isn't so great, and my friend has a 5 year old Mac that has never been updated, which doesn't help in the least. And we were unable to hook up my laptop through the router I brought because he has no idea what his auto-login internet password is. Everything is controlled by the government here, so Jake will try to contact one of the offices tomorrow and see if he can get someone out here to get my computer online, but it may be hard despite the fact Jake's Chinese is very impressive - you should see him bartering! Even if they do get me online, the internet is extremelely slow and a lot of sites are blocked, including my own website, though luckily I can still access Blogger to make updates. Rest assured some kind of updates will come. So far I've been having a lot of fun experiencing the awesome food and cheap Chinese beer!

KLB - Beijing (1)



Goodbye, Seoul, Korea! Hello, Beijing, China. I'm here at my friend Jake's place. Stay tuned for some updates, including how we just ordered 24 large bottles of Chinese beer delivered for $3.50.

KLB - Gangnam One More Time



The updates just keep coming lately. That's because John doesn't have a TV and the only thing I have to do is take pictures and post. Here are the last pics of Gangnam I took:




A fancy building and a Burger King sign. Hard to get a pic around here without some western fast food place in it. Just like America! Well, here are some better ones:
















That day I was brave with the camera. I just stopped and took pictures of whatever. I love Korean street food and so it was nice to get some pictures.




Some place where people can eat the street food and drink soju (cheap Korean liquor) with it.



When I snapped a picture of the soju tent, the donut guy next door got jealous and asked me to take his picture too....




Another building. I guess it's not too special, but here it is anyway.



Another Gangnam subway exit/entrance. Another Samsung ad.



In Korea cellphones are for sale pretty much everywhere. Lots of nice ones here. As to be expected, all Samsung.



Back outside, more street food pictures. Here's a pretty young lady getting a plate of deok bokki (slimy rice cake thingies in firey red sauce). Good timing on the shot. Oh wait, that's someone else's hand, I think.



I guess these shots are out of order but I don't have much time to fix things. This is down inside Gangnam station again.



Back outside, more buildings. The big one further down is the Kyobo building. There's a gigantic bookstore on the bottom two floors.



I don't know how these guys get away with selling fake DVDs (burned onto DVD-R disks) in the middle of such an upscale area is beyond me. At $9 a pop they're a ripoff too.



Wow, more street food. I guess you're pretty sick of these shots by now...



Some side street near John's place. Not too exciting, but thought I'd throw it in for those who said they are moving here soon.



More westernization here. The ubiquitous McDs and some movie billboards.





The one thing about Gangnam is that all of the most beautiful girls in Korea (and maybe the world) live or hang out here. It drives you crazy, really. It's like Darwinism at it's best. And they don't like western guys either because, let's face it, we're poor English teachers - not rich Korean businessmen with nice cars and plasma TVs and loads of moola. I know a lot of you want to see pictures of the girls here, but come on, it's not easy to stand outside and snap picture of beautiful girls walking around. This was the best I could do before losing my nerve again and, as you can see, I didn't do a great job. Maybe in the future I could shoot a video - I guess that would make it easier, now that I think about it.




I haven't been to this club, but John and other people have said lots and lots of pretty girls hang out. The problem though is that it gets overcrowded and you can't even move.

Well, that's it. Check back again soon for an update. I'm leaving the country at 9:30 AM tomorrow. And I'm bringing John's camera!

KLB - Goodbye Kids




This is Kelly, one of the most innocent, adorable kids I have ever had the privelege to teach.




My favorite boy, Sam, is a very nice, polite kid, too. Bye bye!



Another little girl. Korean kids are so damn cute. I want one!



Well, I am not so sure I will miss this little trouble maker...



I took this shot so you could understand what I meant by having a traditional drumming class right next door. I get to hear these kids whapping away on drums while I'm trying to teach all the time. Still, wish I had a cool class like this when I was a kid.



Kelly and Sam getting busy with the crayons. All kindergarten through elementary school teachers should thank God for crayons.



As I said before, my A class drove me nuts my last day there. You can see on the left C and D teams have the big black minus-star sign, which means I'll take stickers out of their books at the end of class. I guess you may also be wondering about that peculiar drawing...



Victor, Dean, and June - three little uncontrollable kids. I drew this picture to let them know how displeased I was with them, and also because I like making silly drawings on the board just because I can. Kelly and Sam got a kick out of this one. Believe it or not this kind of thing actually works. Kids hate when a teacher focuses the classes laughter on them.



Goodbye, Susie and Sarah, two sweet little girls I enjoy teaching.



Simon. This is one of those kids that drive a teacher crazy. An at-times off the wall trouble maker who is also one of your brightest students. You'll yell at him one minute, the next be blown away by his ability.



After awhile I got to be a seating-chart expert. Ideally I like two girls and one boy at every table. For some reason in Korea little girls are almost always good and little boys are almost always bad. This has been the case in every school I have taught here. This seems to change around middle school though, when all kids become a pain in the ass.



No, I don't make kids draw and color in every class, but on my last day there I took it easy. Simon was on his best behavior today, a little quiet as I have him sitting next to two little girls, hehe.



Bye, bye D class. There's Sarah on the right. She just keeps getting cuter and cuter and cuter. That boy there with the curly hair is Justin. Every sentence he ever speaks in English has something to do with me. Every story he makes is something like this: "Shawn teacher I home came. Shawn teacher me TV watched and fun. Shawn teacher the kind and fun teacher, funny haha!...(his English drives me bonkers). He has this weird obsession with me, always following me in the halls and outside to the bus. Then he even got a "Shawn teacher pama" (perm) as he calls it. Maybe he lacks a father figure at home or something. At any rate, he'll probably go on to be one of those creepy Korean guys that bother foreigners on the subway, but I like him.

KLB - Ganghwa-do (3)



The last installment from our trip to Ganghwa-do, brought to you by KLB.



Nice shot of the temple here, ala John. Notice up in the left corner, way up there? Yes, that's right, the walkway and stairs go all the way up there.



A shot of me looking around in awe. This place was really nice. See, now what gets me is this. Look at that sky. You never see that kind of blue sky in Seoul. That's what is sad about living in a modern city, all the pollution. You convince yourself it's just haze and fog and humidity, until you get out and see this.


We hung around this level for awhile snapping pictures:















I'm probably committing some kind of sacrilege here, but it's a cool picture nonetheless. I always wanted a pet that looked like this.



OK, enough dilly-dallying, back to the steep climb. The hardest part is ahead.



Now here is where practices of old and new work in harmony. I've always admired the stone piles like these that you see around temples and trails, but I never knew what the significance was. Welp, back in the modern wolrd, fire up the computer, enter keywords in Google, and presto, the answer: "Along the trails in Korea you see piles of rocks. A prayer will be said as the rock is put on the pile. By attaching a stone to another rock's surface is a better chance of having your prayer answered. The stack of rocks can become very high." Wow, cool, so it's an ancient form of the game Jenga. So, what if you add a rock that causes the pile to tumble? I guess you're doomed to bad Karma for eternity.



And to think some of them start as small as this one. Ancient style Jenga was way cooler than the modern day version....



Here's John striking a serious photographic pose. Hi, Mom!







There's no perspective to this shot, but this resting Buddha figure was enormous.



Finally, up at the top, you come to this ancient stone Buddha sculpture. Again, no perspective, but it was very large and everyone was up here bowing and lighting incense and whatnot. Out of respect, we didn't take pictures of them.



I have no idea what this says, but I assume it says something very deep and meaningul.



You can see from this nice shot how far we climbed. Beautiful scenery. We really enjoyed the hike.



On the way down we stopped and, for a measly $10, we enjoyed the local dong-dong ju (unfiltered rice wine) and a few really delicious side dishes, the main being some kind of friend potato pancake that was awesome and very filling. We weren't hungry again until later at night. Apparently the rice wine from here is famous. It tasted really good and I ended up buying a jug for $5 before leaving the island, though it's still sitting in the fridge. It's not as much fun to drink with boiled eggs and tuna.



OK, I couldn't resist throwing in one shot of the flies infesting all the dried shrimp...that can't be healthy can it?

Anyway, we really wanted to continue exploring the island but unfortunately, there was one big drawback to the trip. The busses. For some reason we never did take any pictures of the gigantic lines, but the busses only came once an hour. We were supposed to go down to a famous beach, perhaps even take a ferry to another island, but after waiting nearly two hours in line, we decided we better get back on the bus from where we came. This was really too bad and we couldn't figure out why they wouldn't invest in better transportation on such a touristy island, especially what, with all the flub-dub in that video about how important the island is to Korea and the world!



John took a bunch of pics of the countryside through the door of the bus where we were squished like sardines.



Back to the ferry. That was one of the nicest parts of the trip anyway.
The cool breeze, the smell of the ocean, little kids throwing shrimp chips at seagulls.

If it wasn't for the fact that we didn't know where to sleep, and if it there had been a better public transportation system around the island (that was a real bummer baking in the sun for two hours waiting to be crammed on a bus) we may have stayed another night. But we stumbled upon a bus heading back to Seoul and decided to take it. While waiting in line we noticed a butcher shop across the street and mosied over. For only $7 we got a gigantic bag full of bacon-style pork which we were eager to get home and cook (coming next post).



And, finally, the last pic from our trip: a wonderful shot of the bus back to Seoul -and some happy looking ajumma.

Thank you for reading about our trip to Ganghwa-do. Stay tuned for more adventures, including a couple of pics from the last day at my school and information about where and what I will be doing the next month...