Classic

CBC radio

Lately I've been listening a lot to the podcasts at cbc.ca/radio. Many of the programs are very interesting covering topics from current events, religion, local news, science, music, philosophy and good old stories. Basically CBC radio has everything to offer you and more. I spend most of my time when I'm at home listening to the radio.

Go to this site to find out what I'm talking about
http://www.cbc.ca/podcasting/pastpodcasts.html

So far my favourite podcast is...
http://podcast.cbc.ca/mp3/listenerschoice_200 90109_10692.mp3

It's about 1905. I know sounds sort of boring but it is worth listening to.
Check it out when you have time. You won't be dissapointed.

How amazing is this?

Signs in Seoul

Days 2 - 5 in Seoul

Day 2

The day began with a delicious bagel and ended with a good night sleep on a leather couch.

In the morning, I woke up in Byung's parents' temporary condo where they are currently living while they move their furniture. After eating a bagel with philadelphia deliciousness, we packed up our stuff for the day and headed to the Hwajeong subway station conveniently located right outside the condo.

After a 30 minute ride on the subway we arrived at Anguk station in Insadong (a very popular shopping area with antique stores and boutiques, similar to Osborne Village but much, much better). After walking around for an hour we stopped at a little Korean noodle restaurant for lunch. Afterward we shopped a bit more. Byung bought some things for friends back home and I mostly window shopped. I bought a traditional Korean placemat set with chop sticks and an original painting by a local artist in the area for 15 bucks! I put it in Byung’s folder to prevent it from getting damaged but unfortunately I forgot to take it out. I think he packed it away with him so it's probably on its way to Winnipeg right now. Oh well, at least I know where it is.

After wandering the streets of Insadong we headed over to Myeongdong to look for a music store. While looking for the store we randomly found a Catholic Church. Apparently it’s among the largest in Korea. Inside there were flat screen TVs mounted on all of the walls of the church. They weren't on so we didn't know what purpose they served. Probably for the hearing impaired or maybe to see sports highlights, who knows. Outside the church people were offering free hugs. I couldn't resist getting the chance to appear on a youtube free hugs video so I went up and hugged them.

We eventually found the Dahai music book store a few blocks away. Byung bought a music score, Cosi fan tutte. I almost bought a piano book but my indecision got the best of me and I made up some lame excuse to convince myself not to buy it. Seoul is really expensive anyway, I'll probably find something cheaper in Busan when I get back. Afterward we went to a mall then caught a taxi home. When we got in the taxi, the driver told us that it would cost 30,000 won to get home so we decided to get out at the next subway station. From there we walked around a while in search of a PC Bang (Internet room). Oddly enough we couldn't find one so we walked around for two hours and got lost in the process. We eventually gave up and headed home around 10pm.

When we arrived around 11pm, Byung's parents made a delicious meal with pergogi and samgyopsa (Korean BBQ pork and beef). It was great having a home cooked meal after a big day of wandering around.

Day 3 - Sunday

We woke up around 8:30am still full from last night’s dinner. I quickly jumped in the shower and we were on our way to Byung's church. The church service was interesting but at times very uncomfortable. The first half of the service was your typical church service with hymns and prayers, etc... In the second half, the pastor gave the sermon. Her preaching style was very fire and brimstone like, and it made me feel very uncomfortable. Afterward it sounded like everyone was speaking in tongues. Byung's mom told me that they have daily prayer meetings where they invite handicapped people to come and be healed. Sounds almost like an extreme evangelical church to me. Has anyone seen "There will be blood?" (Shudders)

After an unsettling church service, Byung's parents dropped us off at Costco where I bought a few foreign things. I bought a big jar of pickles (Mmmmmmmmmmm), some Crown Royal for my principal and some more Nutella for myself. Later we made our way home and had an afternoon nap. An interesting day to say the least.

Day 4 - Byung goes back to Canada

Today Byung packed up his things and headed home to Winnipeg. It was hard saying buy to him. I can't imagine how hard it must have been for his parents. I'll miss you Byung. Hope you come back for a visit soon. Good luck with Nuova!

After Byung left, I got some more sleep. In the afternoon I made my way to Gyeongbok Palace. According to the guide the Palace was built by King Taejo. It was destroyed during the Japanese invasion in the late 16th century but was rebuilt 300 years later. After its reconstruction in the 19th century the Japanese plotted an assassination against the Queen and murdered her in her chambers while she was sleeping. The King fled the palace and was smuggled out by his chamber maids. This was one of many attempts committed by the Japanese. Relations between Korea and Japan are not great right now.

After wandering the main grounds of the palace, I took a tour of the Folk Museum then headed to Insadong.

Day 5 - Today

Today I'm taking a break from touring around so I can catch up on my sleep. It's also very cold outside and it is sleeting. Hopefully tomorrow it will clear up. I am planning on going to Seoul tower and then I might meet up with some friends in Itaewon.

An update at last

Dear friends and family,

I hope that you are all doing well and keeping healthy. It's hard to believe that I have been in Korea for over four months. I have to say that I am enjoying every moment of every day out here. Naturally I have my ups and downs, but that is part of the whole experience. Right????

At the moment I am in Seoul writing to you in a PC Bang in the Itaewon are (one of the more popular clubbing areas in Korea). I arrived a few hours ago after a 3 hour KTX train ride from Busan to Seoul travelling at 200 miles an hour! It's now around 6:30pm in Korea and I am planning on meeting a friend for dinner. He graciously offered to let me stay at his family's house for the week. I'm going to explore Seoul for the week and then return to Busan on the 4th in time for my co-teachers wedding. I have been asked to sing a solo at the ceremony.

It's a little colder up here in Seoul as compared to Busan, but my Canadian genes have given me a strong resistance to the cold. It actually feels like October. Two weeks ago it snowed in Busan for the first time in four years. My students were extatic! They were literally bouncing off the walls when they saw the first fluffy snowflake fall from the sky. They all raced to the windows and stuck their hands out to catch as many as they could. Unfortunately the snow didn't stay long. It melted as soon as it hit the ground. But it made it all worth while when I saw their beautiful smiles as they caught the snow in their hands.

Anyway, I'm going to try to update daily while I'm in Seoul. Stay tuned.

Seasons greetings

Caution: To avoid blowing your speakers, turn down the volume at the beginning.



Here's a video I whipped together this week. This is my first attempt at putting together a video on youtube. Let me know what you think... remember, be kind, it's my first time.

Happy Holidays.

Why does heat rise?

To those who live above a parking garage,

Why can't heat descend? I believe that we've tolerated the cold long enough! Why do we have to pay more on heating then our neighbours? We all live in the same building, we all pay the same rent. The fact that we live on different floors should not play a role in the cost of our heating bill.

Our neighbours who live above us enjoy "free" heat that emit from our rooms below.
They enjoy a nice view of the city, they don't have to worry about peeping toms and they don't have to tolerate noisy drunks and cats on the street.

A friend of mine lives four floors above me. He enjoys a nice warm apartment and he doesn't even have to turn his heater on. I on the other hand, must keep my heater on most of the day in order to be somewhat comfortable in my apartment. As a result, my gas bill is 10 times more then his bill.

This is inconceivable! If I get my way, I'm going to move into a new room by the end of the month! Come hell or high water it's going to happen!

Eat Shoe Bush!!!

Who Killed Lord Smithe?

How observant are you?

60 second update

1. I just got a package from Rob and Sheila! Enclosed treats: Dill Pickle chips, fuzzy peaches, microwave popcorn, maynards, glosettes, reeses pieces, kraft dinner, crispy crunch, life savers, coffee crisp and earl grey tea. Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm, Canadian deliciousness... Thank you Rob and Sheila!

2. This weekend I'm going to see La Traviata and Cosi fan tutte at the Busan Cultural Centre. Sweeeeeet.

3. There are only 14 more days of school until the holidays!!!! Woohoo.

4. You may have heard, relations between South Korea and North Korea have worsened over the past couple of months. Unfortunately, these worsening relations led to North Korea's recent decision to suspend all tours to Kaesong City, which too effect on December 1, 2008.

5. Last week the school bought me a new rice cooker for 120,000 \. It's great! I can cook rice (obviously), steam vegetables, dumplings and more.

Jumping Bunnies!!!

Just another reason why I want to go to Denmark.

The Disappearing Male

Are males becoming an endangered species?

Sonja Puzic, Windsor Star
Published: Thursday, November 06, 2008

That's the question scientists and researchers have been pondering since alarming trends in male fertility rates, birth defects and disorders began emerging around the world.

More and more boys are being born with genital defects and are suffering from learning disabilities, autism and Tourette's syndrome, among other disorders.

Male infertility rates are on the rise and the quality of an average man's sperm is declining, according to some studies.

But perhaps the most disconcerting of all trends is the growing gender imbalance in many parts of heavily industrialized nations, where the births of baby boys have been declining for many years.

What many scientists are calling the most important -- and least publicized -- issue surrounding the future of the human race will be highlighted in a CBC documentary that features two Windsor researchers who've studied the phenomenon.

Titled The Disappearing Male and premiering tonight at 9 on CBC-TV, the documentary includes interviews with Jim Brophy and Margaret Keith, adjunct sociology professors at the University of Windsor.

They have been studying the decline in the birth of male children in the Aamjiwnaang First Nation community located next to the infamous Chemical Valley, Canada's largest concentration of petrochemical plants, near Sarnia.

A paper co-authored by Keith and published three years ago in the U.S. journal Environmental Health Perspectives suggests that exposure to various chemicals produced by industrial plants surrounding the Aamjiwnaang reserve land may be skewing the community's sex ratio.

The researchers looked at the community's birth records since 1984 and saw "a dramatic drop in the number of boys being born in the last 10 years, particularly in the five-year period between 1998 and 2003," Brophy said.

Of 132 Aamjiwnaang babies born between 1999 and 2003, only 46 were boys. Typically, about 105 boys are born for every 100 girls in Canada.

High miscarriage rates and a unusually high number of children suffering from asthma were also noted by researchers.

Although the link between pollutants and human reproduction has not been firmly established, there is growing evidence that the birth sex ratio can be altered by exposure to certain chemicals, such as dioxin, PCBs and pesticides. Brophy said studies done in the United States, Japan and Europe seem to support the theory that the so-called endocrine disrupting chemicals have a particular effect on males.

Some of these chemicals are found in commonly used products such as baby bottles and cosmetics. They can also cause miscarriages and a "whole host" of disorders in a male child, Brophy said.

Brophy said soil and water contamination in and around the Aamjiwnaang reserve had been documented before, including in a University of Windsor study that found high levels of PCBs, lead, mercury and various chemicals in the area in the late 1990s. Accidental chemical spills in the area have not been uncommon.

GLOBAL AWARENESS

But it wasn't until the Aamjiwnaang birth ratio study was published that the global science community really took notice.

"It triggered ... calls from scientists and researchers from around the world who had been looking at this issue in Europe and the United States," Brophy said. "Aamjiwnaang became almost the poster child."

While Brophy has not seen The Disappearing Male documentary yet, he believes the story of the Aamjiwnaang community will be "the focal point."

He said the documentary also includes interviews with "some of the foremost experts in the world" on environmental effects on reproductive health.

Brophy and Keith have also studied other occupational and environmental exposures to pollutants, including the link between breast cancer and certain types of jobs in the Windsor-Essex region.


Article at canada.com

Important Message

N. Korea trip potentially cancelled

My friends and I were planning on going on a trip to North Korea on December 21st but unfortunately the trip might be cancelled. I was reading that 70% of tours to N. Korea will be cancelled after the closing of the border on December 1st.

Boooo.

Here's the article:

More Than Half of Southerners to Be Expelled From Gaeseong

By Kim Sue-young
Staff Reporter

North Korea will suspend cross-border train services and bar South Koreans from traveling to Gaeseong from next month.

The communist state also warned in a statement, Monday, that it will expel more than half of all South Koreans, selectively, from an inter-Korean industrial complex in Gaeseong and the Mt. Geumgang resort.

The move was construed as a retaliatory measure against Seoul allegedly ignoring inter-Korean agreements made between North Korean leader Kim Jong-il and former South Korean Presidents Kim Dae-jung and Roh Moo-hyun.

Observers did not rule out the possibility of the North taking further action as the statement carried by Pyongyang's official Korean Central News Agency said the measures were the ``first steps'' to cope with what it called a grave situation.

North Korea said in a separate letter that it will expel half of the personnel of the Kaesong (Gaeseong) Industrial District Management Committee (KIDMAC) including either its chairman or vice chairman.

It also said it will halve the number of staff members of South Korea's public companies including Korea Land Corp. stationed there.

However, Hyundai Asan, the operator of tour programs to Gaeseong and Mt. Geumgang, was notified that it can keep 70 percent of its staff there, a company executive said.

Inter-Korean relations have soured since the conservative South Korean government took office in February.

The North has refused to resume inter-Korean dialogue after kicking South Korean officials out of its territory and cutting all official communication channels.

It demands that Seoul first implement the June 15 and Oct. 4 inter-Korean agreements the former presidents signed with the North Korean leader in 2000 and 2007, respectively.

North Korea has also escalated its threats because some civic groups here continue to send anti-North Korea leaflets despite repeated warnings not to do so.

Some private companies including Acheon Global said they were informed that their officials will not be allowed to enter the North next month.

Several different letters containing the North's retaliatory measures were sent to organizations engaging in inter-Korean projects including KIDMAC; representatives of companies in the industrial complex and KOTRA as well as Hyundai Asan.

However, other private companies in the industrial park are expected to run factories since Pyongyang said it does not want to make those firms ``scapegoats'' of the confrontation.

Besides, it noted that core personnel of those companies would not be subject to the border shutdown.

The Stalinist state announced on Nov. 12 that it would strictly restrict or close all border crossings and a few hours later, cut off direct phone links at the truce village of Panmunjeom near the inter-Korean border.

Currently, 88 small- and medium-sized South Korean firms are operating in the complex, employing about 36,000 North Koreans and 1,200 South Koreans.

North Korea also halted rail travel between Bongdong Station in the North and Munsan in the South.

The North also warned that it would impose ``strong legal sanctions'' if the South ``causes other trouble.''

The North called in representatives of companies in the industrial site and asked them to submit a list of workers and vehicles stationed there.

My long lost twin

My co-teacher, Mr. Lee, was browsing on the internet and came across a picture and found someone that looks like me! Could this person be my long lost twin? Taking a look...

Nausea

Today I attended a free concert at the Busan Cultural Centre featuring members from the edu-philarmony orchestra. Ms. Jang, my co-teacher, opened the concert with a set that included a piece by Rio Yashimata from The Whole Nine Yards and a string quartet by Mozart, Divertimento in D major K. 136. Despite the tuning issues, I thought that the performance went very well. Special mention should go to the cellist and her steady hand. She kept the ensemble grounded and together.

Next up was a soprano from PNU. She sang caro nome from Rigoletto and a Tosti italian art song. I enjoyed her aria but found that her fluttering eyes and her death-hold grip on her dress took away from the performance. Sweet voice. My favourite performance of the night was done by a young tenor. He sang a traditional Korean folk song but unfortunately I can't remember what it was called. Maybe Byung or Geung could help me out here...

After the concert I went out for coffee with a few of my female co-teachers. They barely spoke a word of English so the conversation was very interesting, especially because I didn't have an interpreter to translate for me. They enjoyed trying to get me to say a few words in Korean and laughed every time I tried. My pronunciation is still very crude but I'm working on it. It's very different then anything I learnt in diction class back home. The Korean dialect combines the letters L and R and the letter F is not used at all. Schwas are often added to the ends of English words like Fish and Beach. Now I know what it must feel like for the hundreds of thousands of immigrants that move to North America every year.

Thankfully it wasn't a very late night because I was starting to get tired around 10 o'clock. On our way home we decided to take the bus instead of taking the subway. My initial thought was that the bus is faster, but that wasn't the case. Ms. Jang, the music teacher, doesn't like the subway because there is no view :[ Boohoooo. The ride took twice as long and it made me incredibly nauseous because Korean drivers are crazy! They don't seem to follow any of the basic rules of the road.

The constant jerking motion of the bus left me with a similar feeling I had two weeks ago on a ship destined for Dokdo island. It was NOT a pleasant experience. Nearly all of the seafarers got sick including a passenger who had to go to emergency. In the end the trip was cancelled and we survived a horrible miss adventure that could have been much, much worse.

So here I am, safe and sound at home trying to get over my nausea. Let this blog entry be a reminder to everyone that it is not a good idea to take the city bus in Busan or to travel in rough waters with a ship full of landlubbers.

Dear neighbour

Dear neighbour,

I respect your right to slowly kill yourself from within the comfort of your room. It's your life, not mine. The collection of cigarette butts in the overflowing ash trays make a wonderful addition to the decor of the apartment. And the smell adds a wonderful aroma to the hallway. I love breathing in toxic air that causes my throat to burn with every breath I take.

Be a kind neighbour and please put it out.

Sincerely,

The health nut

60 second update

1. Yesterday I discovered that there are a lot of naked people at jimjilbangs (korean bath houses).

2. A few weeks ago I downloaded Finale 2008, an amazing music editing program.

3. The other day I discovered that the government will be taking off 130,000 Won from my pay every month. Bastards!!!

4. I've been playing WoW and I love/hate it.

5. I got this awesome bowl chair for 24,000 Won that is very comfortable but ugly. Sorry Liz.



6. Last weekend we tried to go to Dokdo island but failed miserably due to extremely rough waters and a really sick passenger. The trip ultimately got cancelled.

7. Yesterday I booked my trip to North Korea! I'm extremely excited/scared. We leave December 19th and return on the 21st.

8. Last week we had a school festival involving lots of dancing, abba singing, noise making, guitar playing and much, much more.

9. A few weeks ago I was extremely bored/mildly depressed so I watched the entire season of 24 Season 6. Jack Bauer, I think it's time to retire. Your show sort of blows now.

10. The other day I broke my alarm clock while hitting the snooze button and now it looks really cool.



11. Sunday I saw two movies at Cinematheque with my friend Jacob, the movie buff. We saw Breakfast at Tiffany's and Days of Heaven, before Richard Gere became a douche. Two very good movies that I thoroughly enjoyed.

12. My co-teacher Mr Choi, is engaged and he wants me to sing at his wedding! Hurray, my first Korean gig.

13. I love the weather in Busan. Mid-November and it is still in the teens. Beautiful :)

14. This Thursday I'm going to see scenes from La Boheme and Rigoletto with my friend Katie at the Busan Cultural Centre!

15. I like these headliner entries. Quick and easy, that's the way I like it. (Get your mind out of the gutter people! Come on!)

New guitar!

Good news everybody! My principal has graciously offered to buy the school a new guitar. This comes at a very good time since the school festival is less then a week away. I'm going to be leading the kids in a few songs in front of an audience of parents. I'm a little nervous but I'm sure it will go well.

The guitar is definitely a blessing in disguise. Not only does it feed my hunger for music and make the kids happy, it will be a useful tool in and outside of the classroom.