For whatever reason, I always find myself writing extensively researched responses to inaccurate statements or articles. For example, when a doctor I saw in college told me that NFP (that's family planning based on a woman's natural fertility signs) had a "failure rate," I spent hours researching and writing an e-mail to him comparing the efficacy and long-term health effects of hormonal birth control (which also has has a "failure rate") to natural methods. Maybe it's a tick, but whenever I see something that is wrong or misleading, I get annoyed.
This time it was two articles in Gwangju News, a monthly magazine put out by the Gwangju International Center, a non-profit organization that serves the expat community here. The magazine has great coverage of local artists and events, and for the most part is a pretty good read. However, it is reliant on volunteer contributions and compiled and edited by volunteers, so I guess some questionable stuff occasionally makes it through. The articles, on the "dangers" of water fluoridation ("Don't Drink the Water!" in the April issue) and "radioactive seafood" ("Fukushima: A Tsunami of Radioactive Seafood?" in the August issue) really raised my public health hackles, so I wrote an e-mail to the editorial team expressing my concerns. I have posted it below for your amusement.
Dear Gwangju News Editorial Team,
My husband and I recently moved to Gwangju and joined the GIC, and we have been reading the Gwangju News with great interest. For the most part, we like the magazine: it has great coverage of the arts and culture scene here, and we really appreciate most of the features. However, we (and I in particular, as a public health professional by training) have been concerned at some of the misinformation and fearmongering in a few of your recent articles, specifically the ones on water fluoridation and radiation in seafood.
Let me begin by providing my credentials: I have a B.S. in Biomedical Science and a Master of Public Health (MPH), which a focus on Environmental Health. After I received my MPH in December of 2008, I worked for one year as a fellow with the CDC's National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, and more recently, for two years as a consultant to the Texas Department of State Health Services on a project with the Agency for Toxic Substances and Diseases Registry, a sister agency of the CDC. I have also been an active member of the American Public Health Association's International Health Section for the last two and a half years, serving as the Communications Committee chair since the Annual Meeting in 2010, and have written public health content for blogs with the International Health Section, Medscape, and End the Neglect (which focuses on neglected tropical diseases). As someone who has worked in public health communications, I can particularly appreciate the value of accurate portrayal of public health issues and the harms that can be caused by misinformation, even from well-meaning individuals.
The Fluoride Article
The first article that I feel was misrepresentative of a public health issue, and the one that bothered me the most, was the article on fluoride ("Don't Drink the Water!") in the April 2012 issue. First off, there were several blatantly incorrect statements:
1. "adding fluoride to water constitutes forced drugging" - Frankly, this is ridiculous. Fluoride cannot be called a drug in any way, as it does not alter the body's function or affect behavior. It is a naturally-occurring mineral and cannot be called a drug any more than magnesium, iron, or calcium can. Therefore it is not in any way "illegal" to add it to the water supply.
2. "The US Centers for Disease Control has labeled fluoride as a level four hazardous substance" - This is also false. ATSDR has classified fluorine, hydrogen fluorine, and hydrofluoric acid (all industrial compounds) as highly toxic and hazardous substances (because they are), but fluoride is a different compound entirely. To put it in perspective, pure sodium metal is highly corrosive, but we eat it all the time as sodium chloride (table salt). For more information, see ATSDR's overview here: http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/substances/toxsubstance.asp?toxid=38
There were also several misleading statements, including references to Nazi concentration camps, mind control, and recent legislation passed in the US. To clarify, the idea that the Nazis put fluoride in camp water to control prisoners is an urban myth that has no basis in historical fact (more information on this: http://www.politifact.com/florida/statements/2011/oct/06/critics-water-fluoridation/truth-about-fluoride-doesnt-include-nazi-myth/). Besides, even if the Nazis fluoridated the drinking water in the camps, they also provided medical care to sick or injured prisoners. Should we then say that treating people for tuberculosis, or setting broken bones, or providing universal health care, is unethical because it was done in a concentration camp? (For an in-depth account of life in a concentration camp, I recommend Survival in Auschwitz by Primo Levi.)
The truth is that the CDC has hailed public water fluoridation as one of the ten greatest public health achievements of the 20th century, and multiple respected public health and professional associations have come out in support of it, basing their statements on multiple reputable scientific studies and meta-analyses. In summary, the article on fluoridated drinking was poorly researched, based on misinformation, and completely fallacious.
More information from the CDC: http://www.cdc.gov/fluoridation/
Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_fluoridation and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_fluoridation_controversy
The Radioactive Seafood Article
This article was not nearly as disturbing, and I can appreciate its timeliness as the international community continues to debate the pros and cons of nuclear power in the aftermath of the Fukushima disaster. However, I still felt that the information what somewhat misrepresented and misleading.
1. "imagine fish that swam through irradiated waters for 6,000 miles being...served to thousands of people" - This is a grossly inaccurate statement. First of all, "irradiated" means that something has been exposed to radiation, usually intentionally. While some radiation from the Fukushima plant was released into the ocean, this statement implies that the entire Pacific Ocean was exposed to colossal radiation waves.
2. "Thailand, the Philippines, and Malaysia...have been proactive in banning Japanese food imports for fear of radioactive contamination" - This fails to take into account ulterior motives or politics. Japan is an industrialized nation with a highly efficient agricultural production system, so naturally they export a lot of produce and food products. It is easy for other Southeast Asian countries to use the Fukushima disaster as an excuse to ban food imports in order to protect their own rice farmers, for example, without drawing international condemnation for unfair international trade policies or foreign policy consequences.
3. The article makes repeated references to finding "trace amounts" of radioactive contaminants in seafood and citing this as a reason for concern. The term "trace amount" is indicates that the compound is present in the sample being tested, but at a level that is barely above the detection limit. What this means is that some machine could pick up some tiny amount of the compound in some of the samples.
The Japanese government destroyed all of the harvested produce that had radioactive materials above its own legal limits, which are even lower that international standards set by the World Health Organization. Furthermore, to expect no radiation in any of your food is ludicrous; radiation occurs naturally throughout nature and can be found in bananas and granite countertops (for additional perspective, refer to this chart: http://xkcd.com/radiation/). As the article itself mentioned, we are exposed to radiation at much higher levels during medical procedures and airline flights that has been detected in any tuna samples. To generate public fear about it is unproductive and potentially harmful to farmers and fishers, as avoidance of these foods will affect their livelihoods.
I understand that the magazine relies on contributions from volunteers and that people should be able to express, and write about, their opinions freely. However, these articles in particular were poorly researched and the ignorance of the authors painfully obvious to anyone with a scientific background. Neither of them listed any education or training in public health, environmental science, or (in the case of the radiation article), nuclear science. As editors, I know you understand the importance of making sure your contributions are factually accurate and well-researched. If you receive any contributions in the future about health-related articles, I would be more than happy to review them for any misinformation or inaccuracies.
Saturday, August 11, 2012
Sunday, August 5, 2012
Beach Girl Turned Hiking Enthusiast: Summer Vacation in Jeju/Menina de praia virada entusiasta de caminhadas: Férias de verão em Jeju
Our long-awaited and eagerly anticipated summer vacation to Jeju Island, Korea's little slice of paradise just off the southwestern tip of the country, has come and gone. Joel and I had six days off of work this week, so we (and pretty much everyone else from our hogwan who booked their tickets far enough in advance) retreated to this lovely sub-tropical isle for some much-needed time off. Our dear readers may have noticed that this blog has not been updated for a while; this is because, in addition to it being the end of the session and thus exam time, the school implemented some changes to the class schedule that upset a lot of the staff. That, combined with a lot of turnover (nearly all of the foreign teachers begin and end their contracts during the summer months) and the usual shortages of copy paper and toner, created a somewhat toxic environment. We were all pretty stressed by last Monday.
Tuesday: Arrival by Ferry and Jeju City (제주시)
We all arrived at the island via a ferry that one of our Korean co-teachers, Hanna, booked for us. (Hanna is actually a native of Jeju and has been very helpful to us in making travel arrangements, in addition to banking and pretty much everything else.) We had to be up at 5 a.m. to catch the free shuttle bus that took us to the little coastal town where the ferry departed from, but once we got moving it was very comfortable (and a beautiful ride).
We docked at about 11 a.m., and then Joel and I hopped a bus (with the help of a different co-worker this time) to Jeju City, the largest city on the island, while our co-workers caught another ferry to Udo Island (another, smaller island off the east coast of Jeju) to go camping. We arrived in town about an hour later and, after lunch and checking into our hostel, set out on foot to explore the city. We walked along the seawall and out to a pier with a lighthouse. That evening we had black pork, meat from a variety of pig that the island is well-known for. Yummy!
Wednesday: Inseong-ri (인성리) and Cheonjiyeon (천지연) Waterfall
We spent most of our trip at a hostel called Island Guesthouse. The guesthouse is in a small village called Inseong-ri, about ten minutes away from Moseulpo (모슬포). While it is pretty much in the middle of nowhere, the house itself had a lot of character, run by a very motherly Malaysian woman named Ailing. We met some really interesting people while we were there, too, including a guy from Texas who recently moved to Gwangju!
Once we checked in, we headed to Seogwipo, which is a smaller town on the southern coast of the island and the top honeymoon destination for Koreans. The town several romantic attractions, including a teddy bear museum (which we did not go to), a sex museum (more on that later), lots of shopping, and several waterfalls. We decided to just kind of meander and eventually found our way to Cheonjiyeon falls. (As a lover of waterfalls, I was kind of obsessed with seeing as many as possible on the trip.) It a smaller waterfall, but it was still lovely.
After some fried chicken in Inseong-ri, we returned to our hostel for card and board games. I learned a new game called "Shithead" from some very friendly Irish people while Joel played hardball with the rest of the guys in Monopoly.
Thursday: Typhoon and the Olle 10 Hiking Route
Our original plans for hiking on Jeju were to climb Mt. Halla, a dormant volcano and Korea's highest peak, on Thursday. There are several trails up the mountain, including one that very gradually goes up (and supposedly doesn't confront you with DEATH at every switchback like Kalalau). Unfortunately, those plans were thwarted by a freaking typhoon that swung just south of Jeju on Wednesday night and pounded us with rain and high winds until Thursday morning.
By late Thursday morning, however, it looked like it was starting to clear up, so Joel and I decided to hike the Olle 10 route along the Yongmeori (용머리) coast, which Ailing recommended to us, instead. The Olle routes are a series of hiking trails around the island, anywhere from 10 to 20 km (I think). There are currently 19 of them, and they are working on the last two so that hikers can circumvent the entire island. Anyway, our particular route was 15 km long and took us along several beaches, through some wooded areas and a few coastal towns, and some WWII sites and farm fields toward the end. Aside from the humidity and the wind, it was beautiful! And thus I (re)discovered my intense love for hiking (which has lain dormant ever since I nearly died on Kauai). We started just after lunch and finished the trail around 6:30.
Friday: Cheonjeyeon (천재연) Waterfall, the Museum of Sex and Health, and Jeongbang (정방) Waterfall
The weather was sunny again by Friday, but since we were pretty tired from our previous day's hike (and Joel's feet were rapidly blistering from all of the walking that I had been making him do), we decided to stay in Seogwipo on Friday and check out the other two waterfalls and the sex museum (which, incidentally, still involved a lot more walking than Joel bargained for). First, we went to Cheonjeyeon falls, which is a set of three waterfalls next to a Buddhist temple (and overseen by a massive, and massively tacky, metal bridge). Of course, the waterfalls were gorgeous, but we had to scale probably 500 stairs to see all three of them. After that, we grabbed some abalone porridge for lunch and made our way to the Museum of Sex and Health.
In case the existence of a "Museum of Sex and Health" (and in Korea, no less), has left you scratching your head, you are certainly not alone. A brief history: Jeju has been a very popular honeymoon destination for Koreans for a long time; however, Korea's extremely conservative and heavily Confucian culture made it extremely difficult, if not impossible, for young couples to learn anything whatsoever about the birds and the bees. A few avant-garde hotels began hosting some really, ahem, sensual shows for their guests that doubled as inspiration and education - and thus, Jeju's "sex culture" (or something) was born. The island is home to two main sex attractions: Jeju Loveland, an outdoor sculpture park with sex-themed art (which we did not visit), and The Museum of Sex and Health (which, as the world's largest sex museum, I am appalled that it does not have its own Wikipedia article). Its purpose is to serve as an educational facility with material and displays on absolutely every single sex-related topic you could think of (and plenty that you could not have ever thought of, even on drugs). You are not supposed to take pictures inside the museum (but I did anyway). So much has undoubtedly been written about this museum that it would be absolutely pointless for me to describe it here. If you're curious, just Google it.
After the museum, we went to the third and final waterfall, Jeongbang falls, which empties directly into the sea. It was the largest and most impressive waterfall of all three, and the only one where people were allowed to swim. It was also Joel's favorite.
Saturday: Seongsan Ilchulbong and Return to Jeju City (제주시)
On our last day, we decided to head to Seongsan to climb Ilchulbong, which is a crater formed by a hydroeruption and of the three UNESCO-designated sights on the island (and, sadly, the only one we visited). Yet another hike up several hundred more stairs brought us to the crater, which can only be seen from a viewing platform (walking into the actual crater is prohibited to preserve the delicate ecosystem there). We had a fabulous view of Udo and the ocean. Then we headed down and back to Jeju City for one last evening in town. We spent a little bit of time in one of the casinos (which is only open to foreigners - gambling is illegal in Korea - who were nearly exclusively Chinese). We finished our vacation by firing off Roman candles on the waterfront.
We caught a flight home mid-morning and came back to do laundry, cook dinner, and tidy up the house. I know this entry has been long, but I wanted to get it all down while I still remembered everything. It was a wonderful experience - we are already thinking about when we can go back so that we can climb Mt. Halla and hopefully visit the lava tube caves (the other two UNESCO sites). I took a metric shit-ton of pictures, which Joel will hopefully post soon.
제주,감사합니다!
Tuesday: Arrival by Ferry and Jeju City (제주시)
We all arrived at the island via a ferry that one of our Korean co-teachers, Hanna, booked for us. (Hanna is actually a native of Jeju and has been very helpful to us in making travel arrangements, in addition to banking and pretty much everything else.) We had to be up at 5 a.m. to catch the free shuttle bus that took us to the little coastal town where the ferry departed from, but once we got moving it was very comfortable (and a beautiful ride).
We docked at about 11 a.m., and then Joel and I hopped a bus (with the help of a different co-worker this time) to Jeju City, the largest city on the island, while our co-workers caught another ferry to Udo Island (another, smaller island off the east coast of Jeju) to go camping. We arrived in town about an hour later and, after lunch and checking into our hostel, set out on foot to explore the city. We walked along the seawall and out to a pier with a lighthouse. That evening we had black pork, meat from a variety of pig that the island is well-known for. Yummy!
 |
| They even provided an apron for me so that I wouldn't stain my nice white shirt! |
We spent most of our trip at a hostel called Island Guesthouse. The guesthouse is in a small village called Inseong-ri, about ten minutes away from Moseulpo (모슬포). While it is pretty much in the middle of nowhere, the house itself had a lot of character, run by a very motherly Malaysian woman named Ailing. We met some really interesting people while we were there, too, including a guy from Texas who recently moved to Gwangju!
Once we checked in, we headed to Seogwipo, which is a smaller town on the southern coast of the island and the top honeymoon destination for Koreans. The town several romantic attractions, including a teddy bear museum (which we did not go to), a sex museum (more on that later), lots of shopping, and several waterfalls. We decided to just kind of meander and eventually found our way to Cheonjiyeon falls. (As a lover of waterfalls, I was kind of obsessed with seeing as many as possible on the trip.) It a smaller waterfall, but it was still lovely.
After some fried chicken in Inseong-ri, we returned to our hostel for card and board games. I learned a new game called "Shithead" from some very friendly Irish people while Joel played hardball with the rest of the guys in Monopoly.
Thursday: Typhoon and the Olle 10 Hiking Route
Our original plans for hiking on Jeju were to climb Mt. Halla, a dormant volcano and Korea's highest peak, on Thursday. There are several trails up the mountain, including one that very gradually goes up (and supposedly doesn't confront you with DEATH at every switchback like Kalalau). Unfortunately, those plans were thwarted by a freaking typhoon that swung just south of Jeju on Wednesday night and pounded us with rain and high winds until Thursday morning.
 |
| Nothing like a typhoon to spoil your mountain climbing plans. |
Friday: Cheonjeyeon (천재연) Waterfall, the Museum of Sex and Health, and Jeongbang (정방) Waterfall
The weather was sunny again by Friday, but since we were pretty tired from our previous day's hike (and Joel's feet were rapidly blistering from all of the walking that I had been making him do), we decided to stay in Seogwipo on Friday and check out the other two waterfalls and the sex museum (which, incidentally, still involved a lot more walking than Joel bargained for). First, we went to Cheonjeyeon falls, which is a set of three waterfalls next to a Buddhist temple (and overseen by a massive, and massively tacky, metal bridge). Of course, the waterfalls were gorgeous, but we had to scale probably 500 stairs to see all three of them. After that, we grabbed some abalone porridge for lunch and made our way to the Museum of Sex and Health.
In case the existence of a "Museum of Sex and Health" (and in Korea, no less), has left you scratching your head, you are certainly not alone. A brief history: Jeju has been a very popular honeymoon destination for Koreans for a long time; however, Korea's extremely conservative and heavily Confucian culture made it extremely difficult, if not impossible, for young couples to learn anything whatsoever about the birds and the bees. A few avant-garde hotels began hosting some really, ahem, sensual shows for their guests that doubled as inspiration and education - and thus, Jeju's "sex culture" (or something) was born. The island is home to two main sex attractions: Jeju Loveland, an outdoor sculpture park with sex-themed art (which we did not visit), and The Museum of Sex and Health (which, as the world's largest sex museum, I am appalled that it does not have its own Wikipedia article). Its purpose is to serve as an educational facility with material and displays on absolutely every single sex-related topic you could think of (and plenty that you could not have ever thought of, even on drugs). You are not supposed to take pictures inside the museum (but I did anyway). So much has undoubtedly been written about this museum that it would be absolutely pointless for me to describe it here. If you're curious, just Google it.
 |
| The bus stop. |
Saturday: Seongsan Ilchulbong and Return to Jeju City (제주시)
On our last day, we decided to head to Seongsan to climb Ilchulbong, which is a crater formed by a hydroeruption and of the three UNESCO-designated sights on the island (and, sadly, the only one we visited). Yet another hike up several hundred more stairs brought us to the crater, which can only be seen from a viewing platform (walking into the actual crater is prohibited to preserve the delicate ecosystem there). We had a fabulous view of Udo and the ocean. Then we headed down and back to Jeju City for one last evening in town. We spent a little bit of time in one of the casinos (which is only open to foreigners - gambling is illegal in Korea - who were nearly exclusively Chinese). We finished our vacation by firing off Roman candles on the waterfront.
We caught a flight home mid-morning and came back to do laundry, cook dinner, and tidy up the house. I know this entry has been long, but I wanted to get it all down while I still remembered everything. It was a wonderful experience - we are already thinking about when we can go back so that we can climb Mt. Halla and hopefully visit the lava tube caves (the other two UNESCO sites). I took a metric shit-ton of pictures, which Joel will hopefully post soon.
제주,감사합니다!
Wednesday, July 18, 2012
The Immigrant Experience/A experiência do imigrante
I try to always remember how incredibly lucky we are here in the SK. We have a stable job with a reputable employer (by hogwan standards, anyway), a wonderful apartment, a salary that covers our needs, and access to pretty much all of the amenities that a person could ask for. People here are generally very polite, and we can almost always communicate what we need through smiles, hand gestures, and the collection of useful phrases I have memorized in Korean. People are patient with us, and we never feel endangered. We have everything we need.
Still, being in a strange land far from home has made me do a lot of thinking about the "immigrant experience." Growing up, I always thought of myself as sympathetic to their struggles, at least on principle. After all, my mother is an immigrant; I went to school with immigrants, including several who were not permanent and sometimes even illegal; and I even dated a few. I tried to be patient with people that didn't speak English very well and respect those who were trying to eke out a living - aren't we all doing that in some form or fashion? - but beyond that, I didn't think much about it unless I was embroiled in some kind of political debate with my college classmates. Back home we argue about immigration reform and government policies and border security, but how many of us have actually walked a mile in those shoes?
I had my first moment of "culture shock" yesterday, when Joel and I went to the bank to open an account with our first paychecks. I asked around at work, and all of our Western co-workers recommended us to the same bank. They assured us that there were multiple English-speaking customer service staff members who could help us open the account and even help us set up wire transfers to our bank in the U.S. So on Tuesday morning, armed with our envelope of cash, our passports, and our American bank account information (and, stupidly, not a dictionary or phrasebook), we walked into the bank.
me: Annyeong haseyo!
Customer Service Rep (CSR): Annyeong haseyo!
me: Yongo haseyo? (Do you speak English?)
CSR: shakes head
And then I freeze. And I look at Joel, who looks back at me. I look over to our right, where the bank employees in the office to the side are working with Korean customers. And then it occurs to me that we just walked into a bank in Korea with no preparation, expecting someone who speaks English to be able to help us. And then I feel like the world's biggest idiot.
me: Uhm...
CSR: Ah, do you want...open an account?
Joel and me: Yes! Ne!
So we sit down and begin to fill out the paperwork. He hands us each several forms, and (through asking someone on the phone for the English words) indicates where we should fill in various pieces of information (at which point I realize that while I have memorized the school's address, I still don't know our apartment address - I can only tell food delivery drivers which apartment we are in). Our very polite and patient customer service rep puts everything into the computer, has us put in our PINs, and hands us some kind of bank booklet. Then he indicates that we are finished.
me: Uh, how do we get bank cards?
And then another bout of broken English and hand-waving ensues, at which point we figure out that this very polite man has opened not one, but two checking accounts, one for each of us. And then I start to get upset.
CSR: This way please!
So we get passed off to another rep who sets up a bank card for my account (Joel currently has an empty bank account with no debit card) and deposits our cash. We say thank you, take our umbrellas, and walk out.
And then, in the rain, I started to cry.
Not because we have two bank accounts, or because we only have one check card, or because no one spoke English, but because I realized that I assumed that this man would instinctively figure out what we wanted, even though - or maybe because - we couldn't communicate it to him. It was the first time that it really hit me that I cannot do the most important things - financial things - here without help.
Since that moment, all of the stories that I laughed about growing up - the one where my mom went to Bering's asking for hookers (when she was looking for hooks to screw into the wall), or the one where my father's Peace Corps host family waved spoons in his face and screamed the words in the hopes that he would somehow absorb them - came flooding back to me. I remembered standing in line at the post office at my university while the Chinese grad students struggled to understand the forms they had to fill out to send packages home while the postal clerks yelled at them and abused them. I remembered Joel's stories about standing in line for almost an hour at the post office in Italy for stamps, only to discover at the front that it was the wrong line, or Krystal's tales of navigating the Chinese postal system and having absolutely no idea what the hell was going on. (I haven't yet screwed up the courage to go to the post office here.) I thought about how Joel and I struggle to distinguish Korean vowels from each other for our language classes while remembering people back home complaining about immigrants not learning English. In a short amount of time it has become very clear to me why immigrants form their own enclaves in foreign countries with doctors, bankers, lawyers, waiters, and employers that they can communicate with both linguistically and culturally. Without help from someone, we are exposed to an often hostile system, we are unable to communicate what we need and are therefore helpless, and we are utterly alone.
Obviously, our situation here doesn't come anywhere close to the migrant worker, or the refugee, or the undocumented alien who has just crossed the river or allowed his visa to expire to try to find a better life. But now we have real insight into what it means to be at the mercy of your employer (however benevolent and well-intentioned) not only for your livelihood and your health insurance, but also for the roof over your head and your right to be in the freaking country. It's terrifying, and we don't even have a family or anything major on the line.
But at least now we have not one, but two bank accounts.
Still, being in a strange land far from home has made me do a lot of thinking about the "immigrant experience." Growing up, I always thought of myself as sympathetic to their struggles, at least on principle. After all, my mother is an immigrant; I went to school with immigrants, including several who were not permanent and sometimes even illegal; and I even dated a few. I tried to be patient with people that didn't speak English very well and respect those who were trying to eke out a living - aren't we all doing that in some form or fashion? - but beyond that, I didn't think much about it unless I was embroiled in some kind of political debate with my college classmates. Back home we argue about immigration reform and government policies and border security, but how many of us have actually walked a mile in those shoes?
I had my first moment of "culture shock" yesterday, when Joel and I went to the bank to open an account with our first paychecks. I asked around at work, and all of our Western co-workers recommended us to the same bank. They assured us that there were multiple English-speaking customer service staff members who could help us open the account and even help us set up wire transfers to our bank in the U.S. So on Tuesday morning, armed with our envelope of cash, our passports, and our American bank account information (and, stupidly, not a dictionary or phrasebook), we walked into the bank.
me: Annyeong haseyo!
Customer Service Rep (CSR): Annyeong haseyo!
me: Yongo haseyo? (Do you speak English?)
CSR: shakes head
And then I freeze. And I look at Joel, who looks back at me. I look over to our right, where the bank employees in the office to the side are working with Korean customers. And then it occurs to me that we just walked into a bank in Korea with no preparation, expecting someone who speaks English to be able to help us. And then I feel like the world's biggest idiot.
me: Uhm...
CSR: Ah, do you want...open an account?
Joel and me: Yes! Ne!
So we sit down and begin to fill out the paperwork. He hands us each several forms, and (through asking someone on the phone for the English words) indicates where we should fill in various pieces of information (at which point I realize that while I have memorized the school's address, I still don't know our apartment address - I can only tell food delivery drivers which apartment we are in). Our very polite and patient customer service rep puts everything into the computer, has us put in our PINs, and hands us some kind of bank booklet. Then he indicates that we are finished.
me: Uh, how do we get bank cards?
And then another bout of broken English and hand-waving ensues, at which point we figure out that this very polite man has opened not one, but two checking accounts, one for each of us. And then I start to get upset.
CSR: This way please!
So we get passed off to another rep who sets up a bank card for my account (Joel currently has an empty bank account with no debit card) and deposits our cash. We say thank you, take our umbrellas, and walk out.
And then, in the rain, I started to cry.
Not because we have two bank accounts, or because we only have one check card, or because no one spoke English, but because I realized that I assumed that this man would instinctively figure out what we wanted, even though - or maybe because - we couldn't communicate it to him. It was the first time that it really hit me that I cannot do the most important things - financial things - here without help.
Since that moment, all of the stories that I laughed about growing up - the one where my mom went to Bering's asking for hookers (when she was looking for hooks to screw into the wall), or the one where my father's Peace Corps host family waved spoons in his face and screamed the words in the hopes that he would somehow absorb them - came flooding back to me. I remembered standing in line at the post office at my university while the Chinese grad students struggled to understand the forms they had to fill out to send packages home while the postal clerks yelled at them and abused them. I remembered Joel's stories about standing in line for almost an hour at the post office in Italy for stamps, only to discover at the front that it was the wrong line, or Krystal's tales of navigating the Chinese postal system and having absolutely no idea what the hell was going on. (I haven't yet screwed up the courage to go to the post office here.) I thought about how Joel and I struggle to distinguish Korean vowels from each other for our language classes while remembering people back home complaining about immigrants not learning English. In a short amount of time it has become very clear to me why immigrants form their own enclaves in foreign countries with doctors, bankers, lawyers, waiters, and employers that they can communicate with both linguistically and culturally. Without help from someone, we are exposed to an often hostile system, we are unable to communicate what we need and are therefore helpless, and we are utterly alone.
Obviously, our situation here doesn't come anywhere close to the migrant worker, or the refugee, or the undocumented alien who has just crossed the river or allowed his visa to expire to try to find a better life. But now we have real insight into what it means to be at the mercy of your employer (however benevolent and well-intentioned) not only for your livelihood and your health insurance, but also for the roof over your head and your right to be in the freaking country. It's terrifying, and we don't even have a family or anything major on the line.
But at least now we have not one, but two bank accounts.
Sunday, July 8, 2012
A Weekend of Dancing/Um Fin de Semana Dançando
After an especially long week at work (Joel has no breaks on long days right now because of the middle school testing schedule), we had a chance to enjoy ourselves around town this weekend. After we got off of work on Friday night, we headed downtown for a few drinks and a little bit of clubbin'. There are a few bars in the area that are almost exclusively frequented by Western expats, but we also know a couple that are popular with the Koreans that live here. We ended the night at a dance club with the works, including a fog machine and glow sticks. Despite some undoubtedly irreversible damage to our eardrums, we had a fabulous time dancing the night away!
On Saturday morning we headed to the Gwangju International Center for our first Korean language class. There were an interesting collection of students: three Americans (Joel, one other teacher from our hogwan, and me), one Canadian woman, one Nepalese guy, and one Japanese woman. It wasn't too intimidating for us, since we will spend the first two classes covering the alphabet and Joel and I have already learned it, but I can tell it will get pretty intense as we move more into grammar and vocabulary. After class, we had Vietnamese shabu-shabu at Pho Hanoi. Shabu-shabu is a type of dish where you cook your own meat over a hot pot on a boiler built into the table. After we ate the meat, they added some rice and crab to make soup in the broth. It was delicious!
After class and lunch, we went home to get pretty and then headed to the Gwangju Arts and Culture Center to see Swan Lake. Apparently the national ballet company based in Seoul was giving a special performance here in Gwangju. We saw the flyer for it during our first weekend here and decided to buy tickets. I am so glad we did, because the show was phenomenal - some of the most talented dancers we've ever seen. Unfortunately, they did not have a live orchestra, but the quality of the recording they used was very good.
Also, I think I might be Tchaikovsky's new biggest fan.
Today was a little more relaxed. We caught the mid-morning Mass (many thanks to our Korean friend Nicolas, who gave me a pamphlet with the Order of the Mass; now I can follow along!) and then picked up some groceries to cook dinner. Unfortunately, our friend that we initially invited stood us up, but we were able to invite one of our co-workers and another Korean friend instead. Good times!
It would seem that the monsoon season has begun here in earnest. We got some heavy rain this week, and the forecasts have been predicting rain every day, though they do not always deliver. Thank goodness we had a sunny day today, though, since it was also laundry day, and we have to hang our clothes to dry! Still, we definitely need the rain - the Korean peninsula is experiencing a pretty intense drought, so if it doesn't rain, we may see the cost of food go up.
On a different note, I am a little intimidated at the prospect of learning Korean while I am still trying to hone my skills in Japanese - I am finally getting to a point where I am at least minimally conversational in Japanese, so beginning a new language might scramble my brain a little bit. I hope it will help some, too - the grammar and structure of Korean and Japanese is supposed to be very similar, so maybe Japanese will help me as a reference point. Hopefully my Japanese conversation partner will be patient if I start to mix up my vocabulary. I did that with French and Portuguese while I was growing up, so it wouldn't be the first time!
On Saturday morning we headed to the Gwangju International Center for our first Korean language class. There were an interesting collection of students: three Americans (Joel, one other teacher from our hogwan, and me), one Canadian woman, one Nepalese guy, and one Japanese woman. It wasn't too intimidating for us, since we will spend the first two classes covering the alphabet and Joel and I have already learned it, but I can tell it will get pretty intense as we move more into grammar and vocabulary. After class, we had Vietnamese shabu-shabu at Pho Hanoi. Shabu-shabu is a type of dish where you cook your own meat over a hot pot on a boiler built into the table. After we ate the meat, they added some rice and crab to make soup in the broth. It was delicious!
Also, I think I might be Tchaikovsky's new biggest fan.
Today was a little more relaxed. We caught the mid-morning Mass (many thanks to our Korean friend Nicolas, who gave me a pamphlet with the Order of the Mass; now I can follow along!) and then picked up some groceries to cook dinner. Unfortunately, our friend that we initially invited stood us up, but we were able to invite one of our co-workers and another Korean friend instead. Good times!
It would seem that the monsoon season has begun here in earnest. We got some heavy rain this week, and the forecasts have been predicting rain every day, though they do not always deliver. Thank goodness we had a sunny day today, though, since it was also laundry day, and we have to hang our clothes to dry! Still, we definitely need the rain - the Korean peninsula is experiencing a pretty intense drought, so if it doesn't rain, we may see the cost of food go up.
On a different note, I am a little intimidated at the prospect of learning Korean while I am still trying to hone my skills in Japanese - I am finally getting to a point where I am at least minimally conversational in Japanese, so beginning a new language might scramble my brain a little bit. I hope it will help some, too - the grammar and structure of Korean and Japanese is supposed to be very similar, so maybe Japanese will help me as a reference point. Hopefully my Japanese conversation partner will be patient if I start to mix up my vocabulary. I did that with French and Portuguese while I was growing up, so it wouldn't be the first time!
Sunday, July 1, 2012
Settling in/Estabelecendo-se
Sunday brings another busy (and fun!) weekend to a close here. Thursday was the first day we did not have to come in to school early, which meant that I had a chance to try out a hot yoga studio where one of my Korean co-workers practices with her fiance. It was awesome - just like BFree back home! I was instantly hooked and bought a one-month membership. Unfortunately, while we are doing intensives in August, I will not be able to attend, but I should be able to pick it back up in September once those finish up. I have really missed working out regularly - it was difficult to establish a routine while we were getting used to life here and working such long hours, so that went a long way in returning me to some sense of normalcy.
We got some good rain on Saturday, too. That always makes me think of home.
We also cooked a real meal for the first time! Eating out is very inexpensive here, and it is easy (if not necessary) to get dependent on doing that during the first month, since there is so little time to cook at home. Now that we don't have to come into work until 2, though, we should be able to go to the outdoor market before work in the morning and then cook when we get home, or on weekends. We braved the market alone for the first time today (I took a ton of pictures, and probably looked really weird) and got a ridiculous amount of produce for an obscenely small amount of money. Tonight Joel cooked one of his fabulous Mediterranean-style meals for our coworker and her fiance (the same one who took me to her yoga studio). He dirtied the kitchen! We washed dishes! But most importantly - we have leftovers! Woo!
We also made some new friends this weekend. When Joel and I were first researching Gwangju after getting the job here, he happened to find the blog of a couple working at a different ECC in the same city. We left a message on one of their posts on a whim, and we finally met up with them and got dinner on Saturday night. It was really nice - they seem like generally awesome people, and we have a lot of common interests. I have been pleasantly surprised (and relieved) at how easy it has been to make friends here, as I can sometimes have trouble with that back home. Hopefully we will get to see a lot more of them as we settle in!
Joel was musing tonight that this place has finally become home, and I think I am inclined to agree. Now if only I could get all of the windows and windowsills clean.
We got some good rain on Saturday, too. That always makes me think of home.
We also cooked a real meal for the first time! Eating out is very inexpensive here, and it is easy (if not necessary) to get dependent on doing that during the first month, since there is so little time to cook at home. Now that we don't have to come into work until 2, though, we should be able to go to the outdoor market before work in the morning and then cook when we get home, or on weekends. We braved the market alone for the first time today (I took a ton of pictures, and probably looked really weird) and got a ridiculous amount of produce for an obscenely small amount of money. Tonight Joel cooked one of his fabulous Mediterranean-style meals for our coworker and her fiance (the same one who took me to her yoga studio). He dirtied the kitchen! We washed dishes! But most importantly - we have leftovers! Woo!
We also made some new friends this weekend. When Joel and I were first researching Gwangju after getting the job here, he happened to find the blog of a couple working at a different ECC in the same city. We left a message on one of their posts on a whim, and we finally met up with them and got dinner on Saturday night. It was really nice - they seem like generally awesome people, and we have a lot of common interests. I have been pleasantly surprised (and relieved) at how easy it has been to make friends here, as I can sometimes have trouble with that back home. Hopefully we will get to see a lot more of them as we settle in!
Joel was musing tonight that this place has finally become home, and I think I am inclined to agree. Now if only I could get all of the windows and windowsills clean.
Tuesday, June 26, 2012
Safe and Sound/Sãos e salvos
It's Big Test week! ECC divides its calendar into 28-day sessions, and we have a "big test" for each class at the end of each session. "Big Test" essentially just means a review of everything covered that session, but it's still a "big deal" to the kids. It can also be a big deal for us, as we have to schedule book reports, review, a speaking test, the actual written "big test," and sometimes an iTest (meaning the "integrated skills test") within the last three days of each class. It can be a little chaotic figuring it all out for the first time, but once you do, it can be pretty smooth sailing if you have all of your tests photocopied and ready to go. Joel and I have both had to do some scrambling as we learn by doing, but hopefully next month will be smooth sailing, as we should be familiar with everything by then.
The other great thing about the end of the session is that, starting Thursday, we no longer have to come into work four hours early! Everyone has to come in at 11 a.m. during their first session of teaching, which means that on long days we go from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. It has given us time to prepare for classes, and it usually goes by quickly, but it has still been pretty tiring. Now we will finally have extra time to do things like run errands, work out, and have a little bit of leisure time.
Speaking of errands, our co-workers were nice enough to take us to the local outdoor produce market this weekend. It's really pretty cool - it has everything I envisioned in an outdoor market and more: your standard battery of fruits, vegetables, and nuts, plus second-hand clothes, ten-kilo bags of garlic, butcher shops, seafood vendors (octopus, fish, eels, and massive mussels - oh yes), and a kind of dollar store.
More importantly, Joel and I were talking this weekend about the fact that this place is finally starting to feel like home. We are settled into our apartment (with a beautifully coordinated bathroom, might I add), we've made some friends, and we know where just about everything is in the area. I know the neighborhood well enough to go running in the mornings, and my co-worker recommended a yoga studio. We've even found a Catholic church close by.
I finally unloaded some pictures from the camera onto the laptop, but is Joel's official responsibility to post them...somewhere...for your viewing pleasure (except for maybe my pictures of Mudeung mountain). If you want to see them, bug him!
The other great thing about the end of the session is that, starting Thursday, we no longer have to come into work four hours early! Everyone has to come in at 11 a.m. during their first session of teaching, which means that on long days we go from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. It has given us time to prepare for classes, and it usually goes by quickly, but it has still been pretty tiring. Now we will finally have extra time to do things like run errands, work out, and have a little bit of leisure time.
Speaking of errands, our co-workers were nice enough to take us to the local outdoor produce market this weekend. It's really pretty cool - it has everything I envisioned in an outdoor market and more: your standard battery of fruits, vegetables, and nuts, plus second-hand clothes, ten-kilo bags of garlic, butcher shops, seafood vendors (octopus, fish, eels, and massive mussels - oh yes), and a kind of dollar store.
More importantly, Joel and I were talking this weekend about the fact that this place is finally starting to feel like home. We are settled into our apartment (with a beautifully coordinated bathroom, might I add), we've made some friends, and we know where just about everything is in the area. I know the neighborhood well enough to go running in the mornings, and my co-worker recommended a yoga studio. We've even found a Catholic church close by.
I finally unloaded some pictures from the camera onto the laptop, but is Joel's official responsibility to post them...somewhere...for your viewing pleasure (except for maybe my pictures of Mudeung mountain). If you want to see them, bug him!
Thursday, June 14, 2012
A Place to Call Home/Nosso Próprio Lar
We finally get to move into our permanent apartment! After four weeks of living out of suitcases in a transitional apartment, our permanent apartment provided by the school will be ready for us to move into on Saturday morning - just 36 glorious hours! Now all that stands between me and a rocking move-in cleaning extravaganza is a long teaching day tomorrow. Rejoice and be glad!
We are now in the full swing of teaching - planning lessons, making exams, disciplining kids and spending our own hard-earned money on choco pies for them. Ah yes, the teacher's life. It's such an interesting experience - on some days, I start with six-year-olds who know about twenty words of English and finish with middle school punks just itching to run out the door. Oh, the joys.
One nice thing has been getting to know the neighborhood. Our neighborhood is called Bongseon-dong ("dong" meaning "neighborhood"), and it is packed with fabulous restaurants, clothing boutiques, coffee and ice cream shops, and hogwans (private English academies). Joel and I have tried a different restaurant almost every night for dinner and have rarely been disappointed. They have everything from "Chicken and Hof" to traditional Korean soup restaurants, Korean porridge restaurants, ethnic food, and conveyor-belt sushi places. It is truly a culinary mecca.
Last weekend I took a day trip to hike up Mudeung Mountain. I will try to post pictures this weekend!
We are now in the full swing of teaching - planning lessons, making exams, disciplining kids and spending our own hard-earned money on choco pies for them. Ah yes, the teacher's life. It's such an interesting experience - on some days, I start with six-year-olds who know about twenty words of English and finish with middle school punks just itching to run out the door. Oh, the joys.
One nice thing has been getting to know the neighborhood. Our neighborhood is called Bongseon-dong ("dong" meaning "neighborhood"), and it is packed with fabulous restaurants, clothing boutiques, coffee and ice cream shops, and hogwans (private English academies). Joel and I have tried a different restaurant almost every night for dinner and have rarely been disappointed. They have everything from "Chicken and Hof" to traditional Korean soup restaurants, Korean porridge restaurants, ethnic food, and conveyor-belt sushi places. It is truly a culinary mecca.
Last weekend I took a day trip to hike up Mudeung Mountain. I will try to post pictures this weekend!
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