Glad this didn't happen at our wedding . . .

Wait until the 43 second point.

Christmas Season is Here!

Well, it is now December, my absolute favorite month of the year. November is my wife's least favorite--since we were married she as been hospitalized three times in November, this last time with severe pneumonia.

To celebrate the Christmas season, I present to you one of the world's premier handwhistlers, Ben Brenner:




Someday I hope to be able to do this. Ben has been whistling for many years, as you can see in this early David Letterman clip from nearly thirty years ago:





While we're on the topic of whistling, I would be remiss not to mention another famed whistler, the one and only Roger Whittaker. When we were young, my parents had one LP of Roger Whittaker's greatest hits, and it was one of my favorite records. Not only is he an excellent singer, but a great whistler, too. I'll leave you here today with two videos: one of Roger whistling, and one of his classics, "I don't believe in if anymore:

I was browsing Wikipedia recently and happened to follow a link to the article for the current US president. I skimmed the article and found an interesting bit of trivia (George W has enjoyed both the the highest recorded level of public support (90%), as well as the lowest since Nixon (24%).) Then I glanced back at the beginning of the article, and the first sentence gave me the best laugh I've had in a while:

George W. Bush · Politics

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George Walker Bush
43rd President of the United States
Incumbent
Assumed office January 20, 2001
Vice President(s)	Dick Cheney
Preceded by	Bill Clinton
Succeeded by	Incumbent
46th Governor of Texas
In office January 17, 1995 – December 21, 2000
Lieutenant(s)	Bob Bullock (1995–1999) Rick Perry (1999–2000)
Preceded by	Ann Richards
Succeeded by	Rick Perry
Born	July 6, 1946 (1946-07-06) (age 61) New Haven, Connecticut
Political party	Republican
Spouse	Laura Bush
Residence	Crawford, Texas
Alma mater	Yale University Harvard Business School
Occupation	Businessman (oil, baseball)
Religion	United Methodist[1][2]
Signature

George W. Bush is a monkey. George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is the forty-third & current President of the United States of America, originally inaugurated on January 20, 2001. Bush was first elected in the 2000 presidential election, and reelected for a second term in the 2004 presidential election. He previously served as the forty-sixth Governor of Texas from 1995 to 2000, and is the eldest son of former United States President George Herbert Walker Bush.

All that goes to show that you can't believe everything you read on Wikipedia, although I can't say I completely disagree with the definition.

Death to Mosquitoes

I, for one, am thankful that mosquito season is over-- we had our first frost of the season yesterday (rather early for Korea, actually). It went out with a bang, though--the last mosquitoes of the season seemed to be much more aggressive and larger than those during the summer. I caught a few which I would say were larger than the average Canadian mosquito.
More than the mosquitoes, I'm glad to be rid of the foggers. In our area, they aren't too bad, and living on the tenth floor it's easy to get the windows shut before the fog wafts up to our apartment. When we were on the first floor next to the road it was a lot harder. It seems that they fog every day in the town where my in-laws live. When I hear the truck coming, I jump to close the windows, but am met with protests. "It's too hot." "Just grit and bear it--it won't last long." "It can't be ad for kids, otherwise they wouldn't be allowed to spray in town." Even the meat hanging in the shop out front is left there, with the door wide open.
My wife says when she was a kid, they used to chase th truck up and down the streets, dancing in the fog. Apparently things haven't changed much:

Something to go to sleep by . . .

One of the wonderful things about having preschoolers is that you can enjoy the quality entertainment you loved when you were a kid all over again. Here's a classic Sesame Street lullaby:

If I wanted your opinion, I' I'd give it to you.

Life is busy--I'm just starting studies by distance ed at Athabasca University--but I've been increasingly compelled to write down what I really think about certain issues. Someone has said that any real biography ends at the age of 30, meaning that what one does with the first 30 years generally decides the course of the next 40. I'm not sure I completely agree with that, but it got me thinking.
Up to now, one of my general philosophies has been that it's better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to argue with one and be inducted into the club. However, as I approach the end of my third decade, I'm realizing that the choices of no consequence, when taken together, direct the path of one's life.
So, over the next few months, I hope to put down in html, my position on certain rather inconsequential social issues, politics, theology, and so on. I expect a lot of people may be surprised at what I think, and even more will disagree with me, but it needs to be done.

A disclaimer: These opinions of mine, while presented somewhat dogmatically, do not mean that they are not open to revision. There is a great deal of flawed thinking in my mind, and I am always open to new perspectives presented in a constructive way.

Deer+Beer+Feet=?

This was an interesting choice of topics in one of our beginner-level phonics books.

Very Cool "Airplane" with only one wing

This is a flying boomerang that can be used for aerial surveillance. Check out the website for more videos.

Earthquake!

About 5 minutes ago, at about 9:05 pm Korean Time, there was a fairly sudden and noticeable earthquake along the East Coast here. We felt it quite sudden and strong in our house on the tenth floor for about 2 seconds. My parents-in law who live in Geojin, bout 40km up the coast from Sokcho, also felt it there.
This is my first earthquake--it felt as if a train had gone by 10 meters from our door.

Christmas in Sokcho

We had a good Christmas together here in Sokcho. Friday we hosted a Christmas party for all our home school students--nearly forty crammed into our apartment! Eunnie's sister and her family came out from Yongin for the weekend, so we went to the sauna together on Saturday and took the boys sliding on Sunday before a big Christmas dinner on Sunday. Christmas Day I helped the boys make Christmas cookies..
We really needed another day to recover, and Eunnie found herself quite sick on Tuesday. I miss Boxing Day!

Here are a few pictures--if you click the flicker box on the sidebar, you can see all the photos I've uploaded.

Hope you had a good Christmas wherever you are.

Christmas Story Poster Contest

Well after the success of my Chuseok Poster Contest, I brought out another contest for my Grade 6 students at Sokcho Elementary School. The assignment was to create a poster depicting some story about Christmas. The point was that wanted them to tell something through their poster beyond, "Merry Christmas." Response was good, and here I present the top 12 posters. I think that although the number of posters I received this time was smaller, the quality was generally higher.

I will be awarding prizes to the top three posters (they will all receive the same prize), so please put your top three choices in the comments section. Thanks in advance for your help.

Can it be done?

DSCN7674
Originally uploaded by skindleshanks.

This is the photo of the taxi company with which I had a recent run-in (fender bender). They recently put up a sign, which my wife loosely translated, "Let's try to go for 100 days without any accidents." I guess that's supposed to instill confidence in their service. Can you imagine if Korean Air had a sign like this in front of their check-in counter?

My advice to anyone living in Korea--if at all possible, do not have an accident with a taxi. They are the mobsters of the roads, and tend to view accidents as an opportunity for extortion. I guess that lately, this company has found themselves at fault more often that they'd like. What this sign really means is, "Let's be more careful about HOW we have our accidents."

Two Good Reasons to Learn English

Winner

Congratulations to Arlen, who won the Chuseok Poster contest. It actually came down to a tiebreaker poll of teachers at school, but the prize (Jenga Extreme) went to a worthy winner.

I have a question for any blogger users out there: What do I need to do to change my Archive and Recent Post lists to display titles rather than dates. I wish there was an easy way of organizing my food and other entries on here. I've thought also about migrating to another service--how would I go about taking my past entries with me. I'm quite busy and don't have hours and hours to spend on my blog.

Any help is greatly appreciated. come back soon to see what I ate in Jeju last week!

Chuseok Poster Contest

Next week is the Chuseok holiday in Korea. Combined with Foundation Day on October 1st and a judicious use of holiday time, the holiday stretches to one week, so our family has taken advantage of the time off and will be heading out on our first trip to Jeju island. We're very excited that we were able to get the last 3 seats on the plane, takng advantage of the fact that Chuseok morning everyone will be occupied with their family rites, leaving room on the plane for us!

As a special Chuseok Event, I asked my students to prepare posters explaining what Chuseok is all about, what they do at Chuseok, etc. The winner will receive a very big prize of a JengaExtreme game. The kids are pretty excited about this.

So, rather than explain everything myself, I'll let them do the explaining. Here are the top 26 entries.

I'd like to ask my reader(s) to help me objectively judge the posters by leaving a comment in the comment section. Ranking the top 3 in order would be helpful.

Sorry there aren't any numbers to match the pictures - I tried three times, but Blogger kept deleting the pictures every time I tried to add text. You'll have to count down from the top, I guess.

Thank you very much for taking the time to vote - have a Happy Chuseok!

This may be a total waste of time, but I came across this clip of some people indulging in a common Korean beach pastime: burying people alive. If the victim is cooperative, the next step is to sculpture something on top.

Notice that while at an indoor pool or waterpark you may see the skimpiest bathing suits imaginable (on women and men!), at the beach the dress code is generally shoulders-to-knees.

Interesting Stuff:

I found a bit of mold growing on my old backpack the other day, so I washed it well, and then hung it out to dry from our verandah rail for a couple days. Once it was dry, I took it in ad left it next to the window for another day or so. When I finally got around to putting it away, I found this little critter sleeping in among the folds of the bag. Fortunately he was sleepy enough so as to not start flying all over the house. I took him outside and let him loose. Despite their ugly appearance, I love bats, mainly because they are excellent eaters of those pesky mosquitoes.









Next up is a page out of a song book my son was given. There is also an accompanying CD, in both English and Korean.

Here in Korea, passing gas and pooping is not really considered as rude as it might be in Canada, and for kids, it's an endless source of fun and cuteness. In fact, there is a very popular kids show character whose name could be translated, "Little Farter." My son loves that show!

Anyway, here's the lyrics to the song, if you can't make them out:

Daddy's bottom sings like an elephant.
Mommy's bottom sings like a deer.
My bottom sings . . . bong bong bong bong bong bong bong bong!


Here is a bonus that we got when we ordered Fried Chicken from DHA. I believe it was to celebrate the raising of prices from 11,000 won to 12,000.

I wasn't sure what this little critter would eat, but the answer turned out to be . . . just about anything! He eats spinach the best, and can chew through almos 2 big leaves a day!








Finally, we have a Coin-operated Helium Balloon Dispenser - put your money in, and try to catch the balloon before it gets away. I found this in the basement of the Geumgangsan Resort Hotel near Taejin.

Fried Chicken Review: Kyocheon Chicken

Objects in picture are smaller than they appear.

Just read pakalakamino's blog about fried chicken, and it reminded me of a story.
Kyocheon chicken is one of the many fried chicken chains doing reasonably well in Korea. Their "hook" is that they have a thin, slightly sweet batter that is supposed to stay crunchy and good even after the chicken has gome cold. I was quite impressed.

Kyochon's good, but overpriced for non-city folks. when an outlet opened in Kojin (my wife's hometown), we ordered some, and for fourteen thousand won, each one of us got about two bites of the delicious cornish hen that they had fried up for us. My it was tasty. Then we called the local place, and they sent us a rooster at least 4 times as big, half just fried, and half with a nice sweet/sticky sauce and rolled in peanuts. A bit different, but just as good as Kyocheon. That cost us 10,000 won. We weren't suprised when the place went bankrupt in two months.
Two words for the poor owners : MARKET RESEARCH

Just because it tastes good doesn't mean it will sell at any price.


In Sokcho, I've found that Edison DHA chicken is about as good as it gets (although you can get a real "whole fried chicken" in Joongang Market somewhere--they start with a live chicken when you order, and hand you a feast for five or six fifteen minutes later). DHA chicken doesn't have anything special (they don't fry in olive oil, they don't put curry in the batter, and they don't use old oil that smells like french fries ala Hallim), but they claim that the chickens are raised to contain DHA which supposedly makes you smart. One of my students back when I taught adults had parents who ran the local DHA shop, and we had fun with her in class. She said that their chickens were "smart chickens," and I pointed out that they weren't smart enough to avoid the fryer. Anyway, my wife likes fried chicken, and we've ordered from them about 15 times in the last two years (we save the bonus coupons). It always arrives hot and fresh, and is just enough for the three of us to eat our fill without feeling too bad for all those calories.

On a completely unrelated note, I have a new oven in my new house, and I'm absolutely loving it! When we were newlywed and poor, we bought the cheapest oven available (most Koreans don't have ovens), and I fought with it for 3+ years to get reasonable results. Now I have a very nice oven--a bit smaller, but it had a supplementary electric element on top and a fan that circulates the air a bit, AND a light AND a timer!!! I made cookies today, and they turned out great! We'll take some own to our neighbours below in order to apologize in advance for our son's noisy jumping and dancing about. Hopefully Dad's Favorite Cookies will appease them for a while.

Here's a video of a kyochon commercial, starring one of my wife's favorite heartthrobs, Bi. - Note that there are over $50 worth of chicken in the final shot.

Found on the web:

cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdgnieg

THE PAOMNNEHAL PWEOR OF THE HMUAN MNID
Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is that the frist and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Amzanig huh?

The wierd thing is that I actually scanned the paragraph before I realized that every word was misspelled.

Ramyun

It's been several years now since I swore off ramyun, or instant noodles. After tasting "real" noodles, which can be had quite cheaply anywhere in the country, I can't imagine why so many Koreans are addicted to the instant, dehydrated, cholesterol-enriched fake stuff. However, my wife eats a bowl of ramyun every other day or so, and in fact prefers it to most of the western dishes I make. There are many varieties, too--hot, cold, made with rice starch, potato starch, green tea, whole wheat, spicy, super spicy, and heartburn-for-a-week spicy.

Anyway, if you're feeling like jazzing up a bowl of ramyun for a special occasion, check out this Korean blog for some serving ideas.

On anunrelated note, I found a 250g roll of Hungarian Salami at E-mart yesterday for 6,900 won. I bought it,and made a sandwich with it today. It tasted a little strange--is Hungarian salami meant to be cooked before eating? Serving suggestions would be welcome.

Beyond Preppy

Beyond Preppy
Originally uploaded by skindleshanks.

Now there's a fashion statement!

Here's one for my brother-in-law, a great guy, a new father for the second time, and one of Bush's biggest Canadian fans.
Hat tip to About Joel.

This may be a fairly long hiatus from posting. My hard dive melted--fortunately just after I backed up all the priceless baby pictures! I'm in the process of getting everything set up again. That combined with having to make tests and report cards and reports that I lost, mark the tests, and turn in the results just before we move . . . it will be a while till I have time to blog again. See you then . . .

Birth

DSCN6307
Originally uploaded by skindleshanks.

This is the baby picture you don't normally show people first--but birth is not really a pretty process until it's all over. Most miracles aren't.

Arin Lindelle

DSCN6384
Originally uploaded by skindleshanks.

닭갈비 - Chicken Casserole

Yummy--Spicy chicken, ddeok, cabbage and other vegetables, with octopus, all cooked at your table.

Even better is the cold seaweed soup that comes with it.

The name is rather interesting--dalk kalbi (닭갈비) - sounds like "chicken ribs" in Korean.

There are two excellent restaurants across from each other in Sokcho's Kyo-dong Food District (교동목고리) that offer this dish.

Last Friday night I went to a performance at the Sokcho Cultural Center of some traditional, and some modern/traditional performances of music and dance. It was an excellent performance, and although the crowd (mostly high school girls on a homework assignment) was a bit noisy, they compensated by cranking the volume up. The final farmer's dance left my ears ringing.

I had been hoping to see a pansori performance--my wife said she thought there would be some, but the high school student next to me told me that there are so few pansori masters (it requires years of painful vocal training) that towns like ours almost never have such performances. It's a shame that I have spent over four years here and still have yet to see a live pansori performance.

Anyway, without further ado, here are some excerpts from the evening. My digital camera battery was about to die, hence none of the clips are complete, but should give the uninitiated an idea of these genres of Korean traditional performing arts.

This first clip is of a drum performance.





The next one is by the group 고구려예슬단




Korean Exorcism Dance
살풀이 - 안무 - 이현정 신천무용단





These last ones are of the Farmer's Dance, which is perfaromed at many festivals in Korea. If you're going to pick just one clip, the last one is the most spectacular.

Spring Flowers

Apart fom a bit of yellow dust, this spring has been a good one- fairly cool, and with lots of beautiful flowers. Here are some of the flowers we were blessed with this year.Young Maple Leaves
Azaleas

"Grandmother Flower" in Korean--some kind of crocus.

Pine Buds
Daisy

Plum Blossoms
I don't know what thse flowers are called, but they are very, very tiny.
Poppy
Violet
More Azaleas

Friends and family looking for family pics, news and videos can go to our family site (where we posted our Christmas letter) . If you don't know where that is, send me an email or comment, and I'll direct you to it.

Chapchae

Chapchae
Originally uploaded by skindleshanks.

This was a hit with the folks back in Canada, too.


BTW, I've opened the comments so you don't have to register. We'll see how it goes--if I start getting comment spam again, I'll start requiring registration.

Comment away!

Good Bread

DSCN5400
Originally uploaded by skindleshanks.

The brand-new bakery on the first floor of this building in Kyo-Dong has a few treasures in addition to the normal bakery fare. My favorite, though, is the whole wheat and rye sub buns. They don't make them every day, but you can phone ahead and check if they have them.







I use them to make monster sub sandwiches like this. Who needs Subway?

Mission Accomplished

Well, chalk up another one to new experiences--I voted at the local voting station with no problems. My name was on the list (albeit on a seperate sheet, marked,"foreigner"), and I signed it after showing my ID and voter registration sheet, and proceded to vote.

There were six ballots, and the only major surprise was that two ofthe ballots were for "proportional representation," one at the municipal level and another at the provincial level. I'm not sure what that means exactly, but on those ballots, we were required to vote for a party rather than an individual.

One of my friends said that there may be some deviation in practice from the published wording of the eligibility regulations. Apparently all foreigners with an F-5 visa were given voting information and voter's registration numbers. Perhaps the three year requirement is applied to total residency, or to the residency in Korea after receiving the F-2 visa.

I'd like to encourage all other permanent residents to get out there and vote, if only to affirm that you value the privilege.

If voting rights aren't enough for you, check out my fellow Sokcho blogger Gangwon Brian's interview with two people who have decided to become Korean citizens. Interviews are here and here.

Off to Vote

Well, I'm going to go see if they'll let me vote--the station's only twenty metres from my door, so it can't hurt to try.

The problem, though, is who to vote for. My wife and I perused the pamphlets that came to our door on Monday, and weren't really impressed by any of them. Most of them said they would work hard, they would solve all sorts of local problems, but offered very few details on how they plan to cure all our ills. One candidate from a major party (election laws restrain me from naming the candidate or the party ) wrote several pages about how terrible the current provincial governor is, but only a few short lines about what he would do differe