Jump Carter!

I’m sure many of you have heard of the oil spill that occurred recently that has greatly affected Koreans. I am attaching an article to this blog post for your information.

Thousands rally for compensation over SKorea oil spill
31 minutes ago

SEOUL (AFP) — Thousands of people hit by South Korea's worst oil spill staged an angry protest in central Seoul Wednesday to demand swift compensation.
Some 3,000 marine farmers and other residents carried oil-coated oysters, fish, anchovies and seaweed, while a few protesters pelted the headquarters of Samsung, operators of the barge which caused the spill, with oil-covered fish.
Others used hammers to smash Samsung-made washing machines, TV sets and refrigerators which they had brought to the rally.
Protesters demanded that parliament and Samsung, South Korea's biggest conglomerate, swiftly compensate them for their threatened livelihoods.
Three people in the worst hit district have committed suicide following delays by local officials in making payments, including one protester who drank poison and set himself on fire last week.
"Samsung Group should promise unlimited accountability and unlimited compensation," the crowd chanted at the rally outside Seoul railway station.
A few blocks away, scores of police buses barricaded the group headquarters. Thousands of riot police were on standby in the area.
The accident happened on December 7 when the Samsung barge carrying a construction crane snapped its towing cables to two tugs in rough seas and rammed the anchored 147,000-ton supertanker Hebei Spirit off the west coast.
The Hong Kong-registered tanker was holed in three places and spilt 10,900 tonnes of crude.
Scores of marine farms and miles of beaches, notably in Taean county about 110 kilometres (69 miles) southwest of Seoul, were devastated.
The central government sent about 60 billion won (63 million dollars) from state coffers and private donations to the region. But regional authorities have been at odds as how to divide the money.
"We are in total despair," said fisherman Park Mong-Kyo, 52. "We just don't know how many more months or years we must go on like this."
Prosecutors on Monday indicted five people -- the skippers of the barge and of the two tugs and the tanker's captain and chief officer -- on charges of negligence and violating anti-pollution laws.
Samsung Heavy Industries and Hebei Shipping, a Hong Kong corporation which owns the tanker, were indicted on charges of violating anti-pollution laws.
Owners and managers of the tanker protested against the decision to charge its crew. Robert Bishop, CEO of British ship management company V.Ships, expressed "dismay and disappointment" in a statement.
Bishop said the Hebei Spirit crew had carried out all instructions from South Korean maritime authorities before the accident and taken every possible measure to minimise the outflow of oil afterwards.
He said evidence showed the captain "acted in an exemplary manner and in the highest possible traditions of the merchant marine."
The Hebei Spirit officers are charged with failing to follow safety orders from navigation authorities.
The owners and insurers of the tanker, along with the International Oil Pollution Compensation Fund, have set up a centre to handle damages claims.
Under an agreement with South Korea's maritime ministry, the insurer will pay up to 12 billion won towards the cost of cleaning up the shoreline.
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http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5gTFYqvDI0TxGOYZK66K9pBC7FAkQ

Scary Eyes

If there’s one thing a teacher needs in order to be successful, it’s scary eyes. I mean, come on, instilling a little bit of fear in students never hurt anything, right? ;) Classroom management comes first, after all, and then the lessons will follow. What better classroom management tool than scary eyes??
I recently worked at an English Camp in Daechon, near the sea, for two weeks. More than one student at camp told me that I had scary eyes. One little girl revealed this opinion of hers at dinner one night, and I just laughed, thinking, “Okaaaay,” certain that she was a wee bit off her rocker since no one had ever unveiled that to me, before.
Then, later in the camp, during a lesson, we were brainstorming things that fell under the category of “scary.” Students were sharing answers anywhere from spiders to roller coasters, and even ghosts. Then, one boy raised his hand and said “Catie Sung Sang Nim” (“Catie Teacher”). I chuckled and said, “Really?” and although I slightly hesitated on adding my own name to the list, I knew it wasn’t my place to discount his contribution to the classroom discussion, and so I wrote it on the white board along with all the other “scary” things. While I wrote it, he pointed to his own eyes, saying, “Yes, Catie Sung Sang Nim…your eyes are scary…they are blue!”
It was apparent that he had no malicious intent.
Instead of letting it bother me that he was basically putting me in the same class as Frankenstein and Brown Recluse, I just wore dark sunglasses until my brown contact lenses came in. J
I’d never thought of myself as having scary eyes, before. Different, maybe. But scary?
Come to think of it, I guess we have witnessed far too many instances in the world where that which is different, does, in fact, scare the living daylights out of us.

Do the ditty ditty if ya want to...

January 26, 2008
Saturday night, and I ain’t got nobody…I got some money cuz I just got paid…
Yep, it’s Saturday night, and I’m surrounded by silence in my tiny room, except for the tapping of keys on the keyboard and the occasional “bleep” alerting me of an incoming instant message, not to mention the echoing clip-clop of heels tramping down the hallway now and then. The stillness engulfs me. I’m all alone, and I’ve been writing for hours, now. I love nights like these.
Do you remember Weird Al Yankovic? I used to think he was sooo rad when I was younger! I thought he was a brilliant artist with a sense of humor similar to my own. I look back now like, “Hmmm…was I every truly like that?” haha. Maybe not. But I do like to compose my own rendition of song lyrics, especially to make fun of something, or just to be a goofball, and sometimes, even to deal with a challenge.
My mind is drifting back to one of the most awful, depressing days of my high school years, when my then-boyfriend stood me up on Valentine’s Day – that’s right, I said ON VALENTINE’S DAY! – and went to hang with his buddies instead of keeping our dinner plans. I was so ticked off and so upset, I drove around town for hours, alternating between cursing him, bawling, and making up new lyrics to the Sheryl Crow song “Every Day is a Winding Road.” How pathetic! I would look back on that and laugh but I painfully recall just how hurt I was, so there’s no laughing about that matter even though I do acknowledge the pathetic ridiculousness of it! To this day, my good friend, Jessi, and I still sing what we recall of those revamped lyrics whenever we hear that song. :)
This sojourn has brought about a few new musical parodies. I haven’t actually sat down and written out complete lyrics, but what I’ve thought-up so far does tend to play in my head from time to time. Put on your dancin’ shoes and check this out. ;)
If it ever starts to sprinkle even the tiniest drops of rain here, you immediately see umbrellas popping out all over the place. Now, if it’s merely sprinkling, I’d never even think about taking out my umbrella – heck, I usually wouldn’t even take the time to use one if it’s pouring – I’d just run faster! But, the fear of acid rain here brings about Umbrella Wars on the crowded sidewalks, and also brings about a little ditty inside my head, titled “Acid Rain,” inspired by Prince’s “Purple Rain”:
I never meant to cause you any asthma
I never meant to cause you Alzheimer’s
I only wanted one time to see you melting…
I only wanted to see you melting in the acid rain
Acid rain…acid rain.
There are other unfinished sonnets roving about my psyche on a weekly (if not daily) basis. One has to deal with spacey pedestrians on sidewalks.
I’m sorry, people, but there are just too many of us who have to use the same path to get to our destinations, for you to be ditzing about, checking your text messages, stopping to yank up your stockings, or pausing to check yourself out in the Who A.U. window, for crying out loud! If you must do these things while I’m walking behind you, then please veer your sparkly high heels off to the side, sister!
During such encounters with said individuals, another tune flutters through my mind. I can also attribute the inspiration of this one to Prince: his lyrics, “I get delirious,” in my mind is no longer what it used to be; it has become, “You’re so oblivious!”
And, of course, when I surprisingly find my manners becoming one with those of certain city folk, I think to myself: I think I’m turning Ko-re-an, I think I’m turning Ko-re-an, I really think so!
That song doesn’t play in my mind quite as often as the Oblivious one, though. :)

“If you can’t say somethin’ nice then don’t say nuttin’!”

January 3, 2008
I made a recent trip back to the States. I went home for the Holidays and it was just as sweet as it was short. It was nice catching up with family and friends. I didn’t do much, really, but I think that’s what I liked so much about it. I was back in my own realm and was able to just sit back and enjoy it.
Sort of.
Much of the time, it was difficult to full-fledge appreciate being home ‘cause I knew how quickly time would go, and I didn’t want to get sucked too deeply into the comfort of familiarity only to be ripped right back out of it. I certainly don’t like disappointment, so I try to not set myself up for it.
So here are some of my thoughts from when I was en route to Minneapolis from Dallas, then on to Tokyo, then back to the city of Seoul. (Convenient flight schedule? Um, no! Oh well…)
As the plane fiercely ascends, I glance down at the world below. This is it… “Goodbye, Texas. Goodbye US soil. Goodbye baseball and football fields. Goodbye perpendicular and parallel streets. Goodbye people who say “Excuse me,” when they bump into you. Goodbye to those who have consequences for running red lights and driving motor vehicles on sidewalks. Goodbye to food on your plate that doesn’t have eyes looking up at you , begging to tell their story of capture and then being boiled or beaten and even eaten alive.... See you in about 7 months!”
Being sarcastic is what “gets me through,” whether I’m in Korea or the US or wherever. Especially when life throws me a fastball of b.s., if only I can smack it with a corked rod of cynicism, that’s when it’s time to take me out to the ballgame, baby: “Home Run” for the home team.
I’ll be honest, here: I haven’t blogged in a while for a reason.
I’d read back over my blog, as well as all my hand-written journal entries, and I was like, “Whoa. No more blogging till you have something positive to say, Negative Nancy.”
If you recall that I had mentioned in a previous post that “the next stage of culture shock hasn’t hit me yet,” well, it did hit, at least I think I can attribute my recent frame of mind to that. That next stage of culture shock whirled me into a funnel of negativity for a little while.
I say this with a light-heart right now; I just spent 11 days back home, and that breath of fresh US air was just what I needed to feel rejuvenated. We’ll see how long I can hold that breath before turning blue again. ;) I joked to Rod that maybe living in Seoul for a year would make me end up liking living in Texas, afterall. J
Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m still glad I came, and I’m learning a lot. I just have to remind myself sometimes what my reasons for coming here were; and those reasons didn’t have anything to do with wanting things to be similar to my own culture. “Be careful what you ask for,” right? Haha.
I told myself that each time I blog, from now on, I will have to state at least one positive aspect of this experience. So, here’s a piece of positive pie for ya:
Many Koreans are so helpful and would go completely out of their way to help you. For instance…
Back in early November, Katie and I were heading to the closing ceremony of Seoul’s First International Film Festival, and although we knew what exit to take out of the subway terminal, we were clueless beyond that. So, I asked a guy if he knew where the Westin Hotel was. I merely expected him to point and nod in the general direction, and I would’ve been quite happy with that. But, he said, “Follow me.” Naturally, I was thinking, “Oh, good, we must be close.” After a couple of minutes of his leading us, Katie and I exchanged a look of, “Oh, no, he’s totally going out of his way and we’re being such an inconvenience right now – what do we do?!” So I said, “Oh, that’s ok, we can find it from here; you don’t have to take us there…” In choppy English, he replied, “That’s OK; I’m going that way, anyway.” Clearly, he was NOT going ‘that way, anyway,’ so a smidge of paranoia kicked in, and part of me was thinking “Oh my gosh, he’s going to pull a fast one on us. I just HAD to go and ask a killer of innocent young women for directions, didn’t I?!” ;) But, before Fight-or-Flight kicked in, we rounded a corner, he smiled a friendly smile, pointed at the big WESTIN sign on that giant building that we probably never would have otherwise found, bowed to us, and was on his way. He was happy to go out of his way to help out. That’s one of the best things about Koreans, I tell ya.
“A country of extremes,” indeed.
Either pushing their way in front of you to leave their nose print on the glass of the subway door, or basically taking you by the hand to make sure you get to where you need to be.
Either a toothless man at the flea market snatching from your grasp a 5000-won-would-have-been-a-pretty-cool-Christmas-present-for-your-nephew whilst spatting icky words at you and shooting you a nasty look for touching something before buying, or a sweet, pleasant woman at a little side shop offering to hold your shopping bag for you while you browse, proposing, “Discount, discount,” all the while, handing you things to further examine.
Either walking through a door and allowing it to slam shut on the person following behind, or offering to help carry a big load of Costco goods that that scrawny chick is apparently struggling with.
Extremes…
But then again, maybe that’s not “Korea.”
Maybe that’s just “people.”