Where's the Beef?

As some of you may or may not know there has been some political unrest here in Korea lately, and what would be the cause of this unrest........................................... US beef. Yes, US beef. Korea has agreed to start importing US beef again after a 5 year hiatus. The US beef promises to be half the price of what is currently offered in the grocery stores (food is expensive here.)

Yet there is tremendous public outcry concerning mad cow. There are constant protests, people setting themselves on fire, and a whole lot of misinformation out there. Basically, with the exception of a few people I've met, all of Korea thinks that American cows have mad cow disease. The interesting thing is that no one really knows what happens if you eat meat from an infected cow. A lot of the government cabinet has resigned and some are calling for the resignation of the President of Korea. This is insane.

The most ironic thing about this to me is that avian bird flu is already in Korea. We couldn't go to the zoo because of it. They do know what happens to people who get infected with this yet vendors sell eggs on the side of the road, and chicken restaurants are everywhere.

What it really comes down to for me is that I want to be able to buy some beef. I'm hungry and I like beef, I just don't like paying through the nose for it.

This has been me ranting. If you want to look at photos and videos of the protests go to bbc.com.

I'm out

Things have happened

Well since the last time I chronicled about my stay in Korea much has happened. I've visited the Pacific Ocean and seen the barbed wire fence that runs along the coast and is supposed to ward off North Koreans.

I've gone shopping at a night market in Seoul at three in the morning. It was full of shoes, shorts, shirts, and sunglasses. Due to my large in Korean foot size (11 US) and my general uneasiness about Korean fashion (lots of bright colors, and tight pants) I didn't really buy anything.

I've finally played basketball, but I'm not sure it can really be called basketball. The quality and general rule following that accompany a normal game weren't really evident.

I've grown to love Korean food more and more. Especially dumplings, noodles, and dare I say some vegetables.

I've tried and failed to get my driver's license. Thanks to my current Oregon driver's license having a provisional title on it (despite the fact I've had it for 6 years and it will not expire until I'm 26.)

I've also visited Costco 3 times, and Korean Costco is in fact like American Costco. There's the huge pizza slices and hot dogs. As well as Kirkland signature everything, apple pies, tillamook cheese, and yes mom the huge trail mix bags.

I'm no longer uncomfortable taking the subway. Mind you I was never uncomfortable with the cleanliness or people on board, just the general lack of knowledge of how things worked. I now feel somewhat confident I can navigate the cities system with no stress.

And most recently I had parent visiting day in the preschool. Picture this if you will a room full of mothers, cameras (video and flash), siblings, preschool students and me sweating and dancing and singing like I always do in the preschool. Only most of the kids are distracted by the aforementioned moms, siblings, and cameras and I'm pretty much doing all the silly stuff by myself.

Needless to say I'm not the crazy about doing parent visit days. The kids acted nothing like normal and it was weird. But it's over I survived and hopefully won't have to do another one for a long time.

Here is a picture of me and I fellow teacher at the night market. I nearly bought these but knew I probably would never wear them.



This last picture is kind of indicative of how a lot of my pictures turn out. I generally don't smile in pictures and haven't really since about my 2nd grade school pictures. I usually decide to go with more goofy/intense route. What happens is that the kids in my pictures kind of sheepishly smile while I make a face that is a little over the top and slightly disturbing.



At the risk of sounding like a broken record, I do intend to update this a little more frequently.